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Pas de Trois

Ned Rorem composer
Hans Gál composer
Dorothy Howell composer

VentiCordi Chamber Music
Kathleen McNerney oboe
Dean Stein violin
Pamela Mia Paul piano
Susan Dubois viola

Release Date: March 21, 2025
Catalog #: NV6680
Format: Digital
20th Century
Romantic
Chamber
Oboe
Piano
Viola
Violin

PAS DE TROIS explores the possibilities of unique instrumental combinations for oboe, violin, viola, and piano within the intimacy of chamber music. The title work, Pas de Trois, is a playful yet challenging neo-romantic work featuring Ned Rorem’s lyrical melodies and a tonal language all his own, blending American boldness with French influence. Hans Gál’s Trio for Oboe, Violin, and Viola, Op. 94 is a lush late-Romantic work and an homage to his beloved adopted home, Scotland. The final piece, Dorothy Howell’s Air, Variations and Finale features exquisite, expressive phrasing and intricate interplay between the three solo instruments.

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Track Listing & Credits

# Title Composer Performer
01 Pas de Trois: I. The Palace at Four A.M. Ned Rorem VentiCordi Chamber Music | Kathleen McNerney, oboe; Dean Stein, violin; Pamela Mia Paul, piano 4:41
02 Pas de Trois: II. Mechanical Ned Rorem VentiCordi Chamber Music | Kathleen McNerney, oboe; Dean Stein, violin; Pamela Mia Paul, piano 4:12
03 Pas de Trois: III. Duet for Three Voices Ned Rorem VentiCordi Chamber Music | Kathleen McNerney, oboe; Dean Stein, violin; Pamela Mia Paul, piano 4:04
04 Pas de Trois: IV. Pas de Trois Ned Rorem VentiCordi Chamber Music | Kathleen McNerney, oboe; Dean Stein, violin; Pamela Mia Paul, piano 4:16
05 Pas de Trois: V. Three Sisters Ned Rorem VentiCordi Chamber Music | Kathleen McNerney, oboe; Dean Stein, violin; Pamela Mia Paul, piano 4:34
06 Pas de Trois: VI. The Nursery at Four P.M. Ned Rorem VentiCordi Chamber Music | Kathleen McNerney, oboe; Dean Stein, violin; Pamela Mia Paul, piano 2:41
07 Trio for Oboe, Violin and Viola, Op. 94 Hans Gál VentiCordi Chamber Music | Kathleen McNerney, oboe; Dean Stein, violin; Susan Dubois, viola 4:44
08 Trio for Oboe, Violin and Viola, Op. 94 Hans Gál VentiCordi Chamber Music | Kathleen McNerney, oboe; Dean Stein, violin; Susan Dubois, viola 4:18
09 Trio for Oboe, Violin and Viola, Op. 94 Hans Gál VentiCordi Chamber Music | Kathleen McNerney, oboe; Dean Stein, violin; Susan Dubois, viola 4:10
10 Trio for Oboe, Violin and Viola, Op. 94 Hans Gál VentiCordi Chamber Music | Kathleen McNerney, oboe; Dean Stein, violin; Susan Dubois, viola 8:58
11 Air, Variations & Finale Dorothy Howell VentiCordi Chamber Music | Kathleen McNerney, oboe; Dean Stein, violin; Pamela Mia Paul, piano 10:01

Recorded June 2-3 & June 16-17, 2022 at Seully Hall, Boston Conservatory, Berklee College of Music in Boston MA
Producers Kathleen McNerney, Dean Stein, John Escobar,
Andrew Mark (Tracks 1-6), Tracey Jasas-Hardel (Tracks 7-10)
Recording Session Engineer John Escobar
Assistant Recording Session Engineer Franky Gonzalez
Editing Kathleen McNerney, Dean Stein
Mixing John Escobar
Mastering Melanie Montgomery

Cover artwork by Kathleen Mack

Executive Producer Bob Lord

VP of A&R Brandon MacNeil
A&R Chris Robinson

VP of Production Jan Košulič
Audio Director Lucas Paquette

VP, Design & Marketing Brett Picknell
Art Director Ryan Harrison
Design Morgan Hauber
Publicity Chelsea Olaniran
Digital Marketing Manager Brett Iannucci

Artist Information

VentiCordi Chamber Music

Ensemble

Led by Artistic Directors violinist Dean Stein and oboist Kathleen McNerney, VentiCordi concerts have been praised for their “…beautifully articulated, shapely playing and rock-solid ensemble.” VentiCordi combines McNerney’s and Stein’s love of chamber music with innovative programming that blends wind and string instruments. While the starting point of their harmonic tapestry is the oboe and violin, one will also hear an array of combinations for wind, string, percussion, voice, and keyboard instruments. They invite musicians with the same spirit to collaborate and explore creative frontiers of chamber music.

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Kathleen McNerney

oboe

Oboist and VentiCordi Director Kathleen McNerney has been hailed by critics for her “rich, full bodied tone” and “attention to the natural, and enticing timbre of the instrument.” McNerney finds chamber music to be the ideal outlet for her music making. The founding of VentiCordi has fulfilled a lifelong dream.

She teaches oboe at Bowdoin and Bates Colleges and is the woodwind chamber music coach at Bowdoin. She also teaches at the Portland Conservatory of Music. McNerney has performed with many New England and Maine-based performing organizations such as the Portland Symphony, PortOpera, Bay Chamber Concerts, Portland String Quartet, Maine Music Society, Maine Chamber Ensemble, New Hampshire Symphony, New Hampshire Bach Festival, and New Hampshire Summer Music Festival.

Before moving to Maine, McNerney lived in Los Angeles for 19 years. During those years she enjoyed a prolific and varied playing career, working in many regional orchestras, playing all positions, and appearing as soloist several times. In 2004, she premiered a commissioned piece for English horn, written for her, as a long-standing member of the Orchestra of St. Matthews.

She was oboist for two woodwind quintets, Imbroglio and Calico Winds, and recorded with both groups. Her recording with Calico Winds was praised in the Los Angeles Times as “proceeds from Bach to Zappa… projecting solid musical values all the way… crossed all the style lines and gotten away with it.” Additional playing experience includes opera, ballet, movie soundtracks, and musical theatre.

While in California, McNerney held teaching positions at Azusa Pacific University, La Sierra University, and Glendale Community College.

McNerney is a graduate of the Hartt School of Music, where she studied with Humbert Lucarelli, and the University of Southern California. Further studies were with Allan Vogel, former Principal Oboe with the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, and Carolyn Hove, former English hornist with the Los Angeles Philharmonic.

Dean Stein

violin

Violinist and VentiCordi Director Dean Stein has performed throughout the world in recital, with orchestras, chamber music ensembles, and as soloist. His performances frequently garner critical acclaim, as in a recording of which The Strad magazine wrote, “Dean Arthur Stein excels in the first violin’s improvisatory cadenza, his fierce yet luxuriant tone setting the mood…”

Comfortable performing the great classics or breaking into new musical territory, Stein found his greatest expression in founding VentiCordi Chamber Music, with oboist Kathleen McNerney. Stein was honored to be chosen as first violinist of the Portland String Quartet in 2012, with whom he performed nationally and internationally.

Past musical ventures include directing the Arcady Music Festival in Bar Harbor ME. At Arcady, he performed in chamber ensembles, brought internationally renowned artists to perform in Down East Maine, and gave high priority to educational programs, bringing musicians to perform directly for Maine schoolchildren. Stein was a member of the DaPonte String Quartet from 1996–2002, with whom he recorded, performed in Maine, and was profiled with the Quartet in the NY Times and CBS Sunday Morning. Chamber music audiences have heard Stein in performances throughout Maine, at Music Mountain, Eastern Music Festival, Harvard’s Paine Hall, Bowdoin and Bates Colleges, and many more venues.

A highly sought after teacher and clinician, Stein is on the faculty of Bowdoin and Bates Colleges, has coached string quartets with the PSQ at Newagen Seaside Inn, St. Joseph’s College, and Sabbathday Lake Shaker Village, and has at New England Conservatory’s Preparatory Division, and University of North Carolina at Greensboro.

He studied first with Margaret Berend at the Henry Street Settlement, then at the Juilliard School with Lewis Kaplan and Ivan Galamian, and at the University of Maryland, College Park, with Gerald Fischbach and members of the Guarneri String Quartet.

Pamela Mia Paul

piano

Pamela Mia Paul is both a brilliant performer and a deeply dedicated teacher. On stage, she has performed with the world’s great orchestras. She has given concerts throughout the United States, and in Europe, the People’s Republic of China, South Korea, and Turkey both as soloist and as chamber musician. In the studio, or in the setting of a masterclass, she is an internationally sought-after pedagogue whose students hold teaching positions throughout the United States and Asia, and who have participated in and won competitions including the Nina Widemann Competition and Naumburg International Piano Competition.

Paul has commissioned and premiered works for the piano; Robert Beaser’s Piano Concerto, which was written for her, had its world premiere in the United States with the St. Louis Symphony conducted by Leonard Slatkin, and in Europe with the Monte Carlo Philharmonic under the baton of American conductor Richard Dufallo. The Beaser Concerto had its New York premiere in 1992 at Carnegie Hall, with Dennis Russell Davies conducting the American Composers Orchestra. In 2012 Paul commissioned a concerto for piano and symphonic winds from Steven Bryant. The concerto was premiered with the UNT Wind Symphony conducted by Eugene Migliaro Corporon and recorded for release on the Klavier label in December 2012. Her most recent commission was for a concerto for piano and full Wind Symphony, from composer Richard Sortomme. This work received its premiere with the UNT Wind Symphony in February of 2019 under the direction of Daniel Cook.

Paul has received critical acclaim for her appearances with orchestras in the United States and Europe, where her interpretations of both standard repertoire and twentieth-century piano concertos have garnered consistent critical praise.
Paul’s European orchestral appearances include the Vienna ORF Orchestra, Vienna Symphony, Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, Berlin Stadskapelle, and Dutch Radio Symphony; her U.S. orchestral appearances include those with the New York Philharmonic, symphonies of Detroit, St. Louis, Pittsburgh, and Houston, American Composers Orchestra, Boston Pops, New York Pops, Minnesota Orchestra, and Caramoor Festival Orchestra. In both orchestral performances and recitals, Paul has appeared in the world’s major concert halls including Alice Tully Hall and Carnegie Hall, Wigmore Hall, the Musikverein and Konzerthaus in Vienna, and the Concertgebouw of Amsterdam.

As a chamber musician, she has been an invited guest artist at the Salzburg and Bregenz festivals in Austria, Aspen Music Festival in Colorado, and Music Mountain in Connecticut. Quartets with which she has performed include the Cassatt, Penderecki, Borromeo, Chester, Orlando, Leontovich, Miro, DaPonte, and St. Petersburg.

Summer programs at which Paul has taught include the Prague International Master Classes, The Institute for Strings, and the Vienna International Piano Academy. She has presented masterclasses in Europe, the People’s Republic of China, Turkey, South Korea, and throughout the United States. Paul received the Doctor of Musical Arts, Master of Music, and Bachelor of Music degrees from the Juilliard School. Paul was selected as one of five judges for the international screening jury of the 2017 Van Cliburn International Piano Competition.

She is currently regents professor of piano at the University of North Texas and is a Steinway artist.

music.unt.edu/people/pamela-paul

Susan Dubois

viola

Hailed by The Strad as “an impressive protagonist proclaiming a magnetic, outgoing personality, a lustrous, vibrant tone, and excellent intonation,” violist Susan Dubois is considered one of the leading young artist-teachers of viola. From New York’s Carnegie Hall to Argentina’s Teatro Colón, Dubois has won the hearts of audiences worldwide with her commanding performances.

Chosen as the sole viola winner of Artist International’s 23rd Annual Auditions, Dubois was presented in her solo New York Recital Debut at Carnegie Recital Hall. She was also a prizewinner and recitalist at the Lionel Tertis International Viola Competition in the United Kingdom. Dubois has judged major competitions such as the Corpus Christi International Competition for Piano and Strings and the Primrose International Viola Competition.

Dubois holds a Bachelor of Music, magna cum laude, and Master of Music from the University of Southern California, where she studied with Donald McInnes. A former teaching assistant of Karen Tuttle at The Juilliard School, Dubois earned the Doctor of Musical Arts and was awarded the William Schuman Prize for outstanding achievement and leadership in Music.

Dubois has extensive experience as a recitalist and chamber musician. She has appeared at the Marlboro and La Jolla music festivals with notable artists: Lynn Harrell, David Soyer, David Finkel, Donald Weilerstein, Menahem Pressler, and Atar Arad.

She is a member of the artist faculty and string area coordinator at the University of North Texas and serves on the summer faculty of the International Festival Institute at Round Top and the Green Mountain Chamber Music Festival.

music.unt.edu/people/susan-dubois

Notes

Ned Rorem (1923–2022) received his education at the American Conservatory in Chicago, Northwestern University, the Curtis Institute, and at Juilliard, where he earned his B.A. and M.A. degrees in Composition. In the summers of 1946 and 1947, Rorem studied with Aaron Copland at the Berkshire Music Center in Tanglewood. In 1948 Rorem won a Gershwin prize for his orchestral Overture in C, which was premiered by the New York Philharmonic. With the money from the prize, he left for France and spent the next two years in Morocco. In 1951 he was awarded a Fulbright Scholarship to study with Arthur Honegger, a member of Les Six, a group of neo-classical composers. Unlike most young American musicians in Paris, he did not study with Nadia Boulanger, as she opined that her instruction might tarnish his already individual style. He became associated with the wealthy arts patron Marie-Laure de Noailles, at whose mansion he resided. Through her influence, he met the leading Parisian cultural figures of his time, including other composers of Les Six, Francis Poulenc, Georges Auric, and Darius Milhaud.

Rorem composed a diverse range of works, including orchestral pieces, choral music, chamber music, art songs, and operas. His neo-romantic musical style is often characterized by lyrical melodies, rich harmonies, and a tonal language influenced by French impressionism. Rorem has received numerous awards for his compositions, including the Pulitzer Prize for Music in 1976 for his suite Air Music. Additionally, Rorem is renowned for his extensive diaries, which offer valuable insights into the cultural and artistic life of the 20th century and have been published in multiple volumes. Rorem is considered one of the pioneers among classical composers for publicly acknowledging his homosexuality. His openness about his identity had a significant impact on discussions of LGBTQ issues in the classical music world.

Pas de Trois for Oboe, Violin, and Piano was commissioned by the Saratoga Performing Arts Center in honor of Rorem’s 80th birthday. Judith White’s article published in The Saratogian (8 August 2002) provides a first-hand account of the premiere:

Although the commission was intended to celebrate Rorem’s 80th birthday, the composer is actually 78. But he remains somewhere in his early 20s in his heart and mind. Rorem bounded up the aisle from his audience seat in Spa Little Theatre, fairly skipping onto the stage to introduce his work, Pas de Trois. He appeared tanned, vital, and impossibly young for his calendar years. He explained the names of the six movements — “The Palace at Four A.M.,” “Mechanical,” “Duet for Three Voices,” “Pas de Trois,” “Three Sisters” and “The Nursery at Four P.M.” — but cautioned that the titles were affixed after the fact. Rorem said he believes “non-vocal music really has no intellectual meaning.” That said, I immediately fell into the trap of listening to Rorem’s new work with an ear toward anything programmatic relating to the titles. I was rewarded — right or wrong — with numerous (probably inappropriate) mental vignettes. The 22-minute set begins with a strong sense of movement in the piano part, contrasting with a nearly icy stillness in the music from oboe and violin. The second movement featured a playful four-note motif, its rhythm snapping shape into the development. The movement bearing the title “Pas de Trois” gave an interesting syncopation to the piano part, and included some difficult unison passages for the three musicians, who blended their sound into one before tripping into a dance-like section and some musical argument. Rorem’s fifth movement gave the musicians the best opportunity to explore harmonies, and also featured beautifully executed solo work, the violin and oboe lines sounding as if they could be vocal songs. The trio ended with a playful tumble of musical leaps and runs and extroverted trills through the last movement. There was a fairly strong sense of tonality throughout much of the trio, but the music wasn’t bound or predictable. It was good listening.

— John Powell

Born in the small Austrian village of Brunn am Gebirge, Hans Gál (1890–1987) studied with the pianist Richard Robert (who taught Kurt Adler, George Szell, Rudolf Serkin, and Clara Haskill). Attending the University of Vienna from 1909–1913, Gál studied Musikwissenschaft (musicology) with the eminent historian Guido Adler. He wrote a doctoral dissertation on Beethoven’s early style that Adler subsequently published in Studien zur Musikwissenschaft. While a student at the university, Gál also studied composition privately with Eusebius Mandyczewski, who had been a close friend of Johannes Brahms. Together, Gál and Mandyczewski edited 10 volumes of the Complete Edition of Brahms’s works (published by Breitkopf & Härtel in 1926).

During World War I, Gál served in Serbia, the Carpathians, and in Italy. After the war, he taught music theory at the New Vienna Conservatory in a post once held by Anton Bruckner. With the support of Wilhelm Furtwangler, Richard Strauss, and others, Gál was appointed director of the Mainz Conservatory in 1929. Upon Hitler’s rise to power, however, Gál’s offense of his Jewishness weighed against him, and so he left Germany for Britain. Despite the assistance of the musicologist Donald Tovey, there followed a period of considerable hardship, including internment as an enemy alien. Finally, Gál was appointed to an academic post at the Edinburgh Music Conservatory, where he stayed until his death at age 97. In Edinburgh, Gál was a respected member of the local music scene, and one of the founders of the Edinburgh Music Festival.

While Gál’s music was not widely recognized during his lifetime, there has recently been a renewed interest in his works. His is a distinctive, original voice — a blend of late-Romantic and early 20th-century influences, with attention to melody, counterpoint, and form. He uses a rich vocabulary of melody, timbre, textures, and structures to reveal still unexplored possibilities of the tonal language to which he retained lifelong loyalty. The Trio for Oboe, Violin and Viola, Op. 94, showcases Gál’s skill in creating intricate and engaging textures within a chamber music setting. His choice of these specific instruments offers a distinct color palette, with the oboe contributing its expressive and lyrical qualities, the violin providing a melodic voice, and the viola adding depth and richness to the ensemble.

— John Powell

Dorothy Howell (1898–1982) was born in Birmingham, one of six children, where her developing talents as a pianist and composer were encouraged by her parents. She received a convent education at St. Anne’s in Birmingham, then at Boon, Belgium (both of which she hated), and finally attended Notre Dame Convent in Clapham. Composing by the age of 13, she always preferred music to school and so, was allowed to end her education early at 15 to attend the Royal Academy of Music in London in 1914 to study piano and composition. She studied composition with J.B. McEwen; piano with both Percy Waller and Tobias Matthay, and violin with Gladys Chester.

Soon after graduating, Howell gained fame with her first large-scale orchestral work, the symphonic poem Lamia. It was premiered at the 1919 Proms by Henry Joseph Wood (1869–1944), English conductor and founder of the “Promenade Concerts.” A sensation was created overnight, with the press heralding her as the “English Strauss.” In 1923 Wood attempted to recruit Howell to his conducting class at the Royal Academy of Music, but instead, she accepted an appointment the following year as Professor of Harmony and Counterpoint. During World War II, Howell served with the Women’s Land Army, and from 1950 to 1957 she taught at the Birmingham School of Music. Howell retired from the Royal Academy of Music in 1970 but continued to teach students privately. In 1971, she was elected a member of the Royal Philharmonic Society.

Howell’s works often reflect the musical trends of her time, incorporating elements of impressionism and romanticism. Air, Variations and Finale for oboe, violin, and piano showcases Howell’s ability to blend different instruments harmoniously and expressively. The piece follows a traditional format, beginning with an “Air,” which is a slow, lyrical movement, followed by “Variations,” where a theme undergoes diverse transformations, and a “Finale” that serves as a lively conclusion. It features melodic richness, expressive phrasing, and intricate interactions between the oboe, violin, and piano parts.

— John Powell

From the moment we started rehearsing Ned Rorem’s brilliant composition, Pas de Trois in 2014, we knew we wanted to record it. How could it possibly be that no one had yet recorded this spell-binding work? As the years passed and VentiCordi continued to thrive, we discovered yet more unrecorded music. We realized that these unrecorded works needed to be heard and we had a project to complete. In 2019 we invited pianist, Pamela Mia Paul, and violist Susan Dubois, to record three previously unrecorded works with us. Plane tickets were booked and concert halls were reserved. Then came the worldwide Covid-19 pandemic. All of the plans for recording were put on hold.

Fast forward to 2022 and the recording project planning resumed. By this time, the Hans Gál had been recorded, but the two other works by Ned Rorem and Dorothy Howell still had not. We recorded all three works at the Boston Conservatory at Berklee College of Music in June of 2022 with the extraordinary recording engineer, John Escobar. The sessions were intense, fun, and rewarding. The recording speaks for itself.

We thank our fellow artists Pamela Mia Paul and Susan Dubois for their contributions to bringing this music to life. Their spirit and dedication were of the highest level, for which we are very grateful. We also thank John Escobar, who always made it easy for us to focus on the music while he performed his technical wizardry. Andrew Mark and Tracey Jasas-Hardel provided the supportive feedback needed to make the project better. Lois Lange graciously opened her home to us during these sessions, ensuring well-fed and rested musicians. And finally, thanks to the team at PARMA Recordings for recognizing the need and value for this music to be heard.

nv6680-notes-1

John Escobar, engineer; Dean Stein, violin; Kathleen McNerney, oboe; Pamela Mia Paul, piano; Andrew Mark, co-producer