Intimate Voices: Chamber Music of David Conte Samuel Vargas, Kevin Korth, Emil Miland, Miles Graber, Kevin Rivard, Jerome Simas, Eric Zivian, Matthew Linaman

• David Conte (b. 1955): Elegy for Violin and Piano:
• 1 Conte: Elegy for Violin and Piano 06:42
• Aria and Fugue for Cello and Piano:
• 2 Conte: Aria and Fugue for Cello and Piano: I. Aria 04:45
• 3 Conte: Aria and Fugue for Cello and Piano: II. Fugue 02:42
• Sonata for French Horn and Piano:
• 4 Conte: Sonata for French Horn and Piano: I. Allegretto 04:52
• 5 Conte: Sonata for French Horn and Piano: II. Adagio 04:29
• 6 Conte: Sonata for French Horn and Piano: III. Allegro giocoso 03:31
• Sonata for Clarinet and Piano:
• 7 Conte: Sonata for Clarinet and Piano: I. Allegro moderato, appassionato 08:12
• 8 Conte: Sonata for Clarinet and Piano: II. Largamente, Lento molto 05:32
• 9 Conte: Sonata for Clarinet and Piano: III. Allegro 04:17
• Piano Trio No. 2:
• 10 Conte: Piano Trio No. 2: I. Allegro moderato 05:44
• 11 Conte: Piano Trio No. 2: II. Scherzo. Allegro scherzando 05:25
• 12 Conte: Piano Trio No. 2: III. Passacaglia. Largo serio 06:20
• 13 Conte: Piano Trio No. 2: IV. Elegy. Largo espressivo 09:02
• Total Runtime 01:11:33

Info for Intimate Voices: Chamber Music of David Conte

David Conte’s Intimate Voices presents a deeply personal journey through a decade of his chamber music, with works recorded between 2014 and 2024. Celebrating the composer’s 70th birthday, this album reflects his belief in the continuity of musical culture, shaped by his studies with the legendary pedagogue Nadia Boulanger. As one of her last students, Conte embraces her wisdom that “true personality in music is only revealed through the deep knowledge of the personalities of others.” His compositions resonate with this philosophy, drawing inspiration from past masters while forging his own expressive voice.

Highlights include the quietly intense Elegy for Violin and Piano and the dynamic Piano Trio No. 2, whose four movements pay tribute to Erich Korngold, Stephen Sondheim, Frank Martin, and Beethoven. Also featured are the Sonata for Clarinet and Piano, Sonata for French Horn and Piano, and Aria and Fugue for Cello and Piano, each showcasing Conte’s mastery of instrumental color and structural clarity. His works seek to engage listeners beyond chronological time, instead creating musical narratives that feel eternal in their emotional depth and artistic intent.

Marking his debut on PENTATONE, Intimate Voices is a testament to Conte’s evolution as a composer and his deep reverence for the past. Performed by an ensemble of distinguished musicians including Samuel Vargas, Kevin Korth, Emil Miland, Miles Graber, Kevin Rivard, Jerome Simas, Eric Zivian, and Matthew Linaman, this album offers an essential listening experience for lovers of contemporary chamber music.

Samuel Vargas, violin
Kevin Korth, piano
Emil Miland, cello
Miles Graber, piano
Kevin Rivard, french horn
Jerome Simas, clarinet
Eric Zivian, piano
Matthew Linaman, cello

Samuel Vargas Teixeira
is a Venezuelan-born violinist renowned for his exceptional artistry and versatile career as a performer, educator, writer, and entrepreneur. He has received numerous prestigious accolades, including the $50,000 First Prize at the 2021 Sphinx Competition, the Visionary Impact Award for entrepreneurship in 2024, the José Antonio Abreu International Award for the Arts in 2022, the Teacher Award at the 2024 Debussy International Music Competition, and the Yamaha Young Performing Artist Award in 2019, among many others.

Throughout his career, Vargas has performed in over 40 countries, collaborating with distinguished orchestras such as the Santa Fe Symphony, The New World Symphony, Simón Bolívar Orchestra, Vancouver Symphony Orchestra, San Bernardino Symphony, Venezuela National Philharmonic, and Allentown Symphony Orchestra. He has also worked with renowned conductors, including Gustavo Dudamel, Simon Rattle, Daniel Barenboim, Claudio Abbado, and Anthony Parnther.

In addition to his performing and teaching roles, Vargas is the founder and president of the Vargas Foundation, an organization dedicated to enriching communities and society through the power of classical music and creative education. The foundation takes a holistic approach to music education, supporting students in all areas of their studies and well-being. To date, the foundation has impacted over 100,000 students across 18 countries through online and in-person activities, as well as donations of accessories and instruments.

In August 2024, Vargas joined the Schwob School of Music at Columbus State University as a lecturer in violin and chamber music coordinator. He is also under contract in San Francisco, California under The Concerto Initiative and 3232 Music. He performs on a 1948 Giusseppe Pedrazzini violin, generously loaned to him by his mentor, Sergiu Schwartz.

Kevin Korth
As an in-demand recitalist and coach, pianist Kevin Korth has collaborated with such legendary artists as Frederica von Stade, Isabel Leonard, Jake Heggie, Nadine Sierra, Anthony Roth Costanzo, Sasha Cooke, John Holiday, Lise Lindstrom, Joel Krosnick, and Deborah Voigt. Praised by Gramophone for playing that is “superb,” and “full of color and character,” his debut album, Out of the Shadows, a recording of American art song with soprano Lisa Delan and cellist Matt Haimovitz on the Pentatone Classics label was warmly received.

Reflecting his being in demand as an interpreter of contemporary work, the album features premieres by Jack Perla, Gordon Getty, and David Garner, in addition to previously unrecorded works by Norman Dello Joio and John Kander. His latest recordings include an album of Robinson Jeffers settings by composer Christopher Anderson-Bazzoli with mezzo-soprano Buffy Baggott for the Delos label, and an album of songs by composer David Conte for the Arsis label. Recent recital engagements include recitals with mezzo-sopranos Catherine Cook and Susanne Mentzer, baritone Matthew Worth and soprano Rhoslyn Jones. Mr. Korth currently holds a position on the vocal coaching faculty at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music.

Emil Miland
A member of the San Francisco Opera Orchestra since 1988, cellist Emil Miland is an acclaimed soloist, chamber and orchestral musician. He made his solo debut with the San Francisco Symphony at age 16, the same year he was selected to perform in the Rostropovich Master Classes at the University of California, Berkeley. A graduate of the New England Conservatory of Music, he has received grants from the National Endowment for the Arts and Chamber Music America. His many recital collaborations include performances with Jamie Barton, Joyce DiDonato, Susan Graham, Marilyn Horne, Frederica von Stade, the late Zheng Cao and the late Lorraine Hunt-Lieberson. In 2010, Miland was invited by von Stade to perform with her at Carnegie Hall for her farewell recital.

Many composers have written and dedicated new works for him, including Ernst Bacon, David Carlson, David Conte, Shinji Eshima, John Grimmett, Lou Harrison, Jake Heggie, Richard Hervig, Andrew Imbrie, James Meredith and Dwight Okamura. His recordings include David Carlson's Cello Concerto No. 1 with the Utah Symphony on New World Records and his Sonata for Cello and Piano with pianist, David Korevaar on MSR Records. He is featured on many of Jake Heggie's recordings beginning with the RCA Red Seal CD, The Faces of Love: The Songs of Jake Heggie and most recently, the 2013 release, Here/After: Songs of Lost Voices on Pentatone.

Miland is featured on David Conte's CD of chamber music for Albany Records, on which he performs Conte's Sonata for Violoncello and Piano (written for Miland) with Miles Graber, as well as Conte's Piano Trio with violinist Kay Stern and pianist Keisuke Nakagoshi. This recording has been met with critical acclaim, with reviews praising Miland's "impeccable playing in terms of both technique and taste" and lauding him for "extracting every ounce of passion from this passionate work". Most recently, he can be heard on the Arsis recording, "Everyone Sang ... vocal music of David Conte", collaborating with tenor, Brian Thorsett and pianist, John Churchwell. In July of 2018, he premiered Conte's new Concerto for Cello with Michael Morgan conducting the Bear Valley Music Festival Orchestra.

Miland is presented in The Heart of a Bell, a film by Eric Theirmann and Aleksandra Wolska, performing Smirti, a haunting elegy for cello, Tibetan chimes and bells with the Sonos Handbell Ensemble. He also joined Sonos in December 2012 as a soloist on their nine city tour of Japan. He also appears in the 2012 documentary, "Lou Harrison: A World of Music" by Eva Soltes. In 2013, he made his Paris recital debut under the auspices of the European American Musical Alliance. Last year, Miland toured to Hawaii and Australia performing chamber music. He is also featured on Love Life, a 2016 recording featuring soprano, Ann Moss and music by Jake Heggie, Liam Wade and Joni Mitchell. Miland plays regularly as a member of the Joshua Trio with Ms. Moss and harpist, Meredith Clark. He performs on a cello made in 1718 by Giovanni Grancino in Milan, Italy.

Kevin Rivard
became a member of the San Francisco Opera Orchestra in 2008, holding the position of Co-Principal French Horn. He is renowned for his "delicious quality of tone" and concurrently serves as the Principal Horn in the San Francisco Ballet Orchestra. In addition to his orchestral roles, he has earned recognition as a soloist and chamber musician. His performances have graced stages with distinguished ensembles, including the New Century Chamber Orchestra, Music@Menlo, the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, and the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center.

Throughout his career, Kevin Rivard has claimed victory in numerous solo competitions, securing prestigious titles such as the Grand Prize at the 2008 Concours International d'Interpretation Musicale in Paris, the 2007 International Horn Competition of America, and the 2003 Farkas Solo Horn competition. His musical journey has also led him to guest as Principal Horn with the Los Angeles Philharmonic and perform with the Philadelphia and Metropolitan Opera Orchestras. Notably, he was featured as a soloist with the Houston Symphony. Prior to his roles in San Francisco, Kevin Rivard held positions with the Colorado Symphony and Florida Orchestra.

A Juilliard graduate, Mr. Rivard has lent his musical talents to various festivals and ensembles, including the Santa Fe Opera, the Sarasota Music Festival, the Norfolk Chamber Music, and the Verbier Music Festivals. In addition to his performance career, he shares his passion for music education as the Horn professor at San Jose State University. Mr. Rivard is deeply dedicated to teaching and inspiring young students. He remains committed to nurturing future talent, and as part of this commitment, he dedicates his time to volunteer at local schools, sharing live music performances with youth and extending the opportunity for as many children as possible to enjoy the magic of live music.

Jerome Simas
is Solo Bass Clarinet and Utility Clarinet of the San Francisco Symphony, having been appointed by conductor Michael Tilson Thomas in 2012, and is a member of the Sun Valley Music Festival Orchestra. Also an active chamber musician, he is solo clarinetist with the Bay Area’s Left Coast Chamber Ensemble, collaborates frequently with San Francisco Symphony colleagues in chamber performances at Davies Symphony Hall, and performs chamber music with the Sierra Chamber Society in the East Bay.

Mr. Simas has served as principal clarinetist of the IRIS Orchestra and the California, Oakland, Modesto, and Monterey Symphonies. His engagements with other American orchestras include the San Francisco Opera (as acting Principal Clarinet), San Francisco Ballet, Chautauqua Symphony, Cleveland Orchestra, and Naples Philharmonic of Florida. With the San Francisco Symphony, he has performed under the baton of Michael Tilson Thomas, Esa-Pekka Salonen, Herbert Blomstedt, Jaap van Zweden, Kurt Masur, Manfred Honeck, Alasdair Neale, and composer John Adams, among others. Mr. Simas’s awards and honors include a fellowship at the New World Symphony in Miami Beach, Florida, the Grand Prize at the Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition, First Prize at the Yellow Springs Chamber Music Competition, and First Prize at the International Clarinet Association’s Young Artist Competition. He has participated in the Marlboro Music Festival, National Repertory Orchestra, and at the Tanglewood Music Center. ​

Jerome Simas is featured in Rhapsody in Blue and Ebony Concerto on the New World Symphony’s recording New World Jazz (with conductor and soloist Michael Tilson Thomas, RCA Victor Red Seal). He received his Bachelor's and Master's degrees in Music from the Cleveland Institute of Music, where he studied under Cleveland Orchestra Principal Clarinet Franklin Cohen. Previous teachers include clarinet studies with William E. Powell and Jay Allen. ​

Eric Zivian received music degrees from the Curtis Institute of Music, the Juilliard School and the Yale School of Music. He studied piano with Gary Graffman and Peter Serkin and composition with Ned Rorem, Jacob Druckman, and Martin Bresnick.

Eric is equally at home on modern and period instruments. He is Music Director of the Valley of the Moon Music Festival, a festival in Sonoma specializing in Classical and Romantic chamber music played on period instruments, and a longtime member of the Left Coast Chamber Ensemble in San Francisco.

Eric recently performed the Mozart C minor Concerto with the Portland Baroque Orchestra and the Beethoven Choral Fantasy with the Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra. At the height of the pandemic, Eric livestreamed all 32 Beethoven piano sonatas on period pianos.

Matthew Linaman
has performed both as a solo cellist and as part of Cello Street Quartet, an ensemble he co-founded, in some of the world’s most prestigious concert halls across the United States and Europe. Now focused on empowering young students through music, Linaman specializes in teaching budding cellists the foundations of technique and musical expression while cultivating curiosity and the drive to make an impact in the world.

While a student of Jean-Michel Fonteneau at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music (SFCM), Linaman was the winner of the SFCM Concerto Competition, the Oakland Symphony Young Artist Competition and the Reno Chamber Orchestra Concerto Competition. In his third year, Linaman co-founded the Cello Street Quartet. Over their five years together, they gave over a hundred and fifty free public performances, including extensive musical and educational outreach. In 2014, the Cello Street Quartet was honored to serve as musical ambassadors to Hungary, Kosovo and Russia through the US State Department’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs.

Linaman is currently a Pre-College faculty member at SFCM, coaching chamber music and teaching privately in his own studio. In 2017, he was a featured speaker on the TEDx stage at Herbst theater in San Francisco, has been featured on podcasts, and has presented as a guest speaker at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music to speak on entrepreneurship in music. Linaman looks forward to working with Maestro Michael Morgan in February of 2019 performing the Schumann Cello Concerto with the Reno Chamber Orchestra in his hometown of Reno, Nevada.