Saturday, May 3, 2025 • 7:30 p.m.
First Free Methodist Church (3200 3rd Ave W, Seattle)
Harmonia Orchestra & Chorus
William White, conductor
Carson Ling-Efird, cello
Program
Vincenzo Bellini (1801–1835)
Overture to Norma
Robert Schumann (1810–1856)
Cello Concerto in A minor, Op. 129
— intermission —
Felix Mendelssohn (1809–1847)
Die erste Walpurgisnacht, Op. 60
About the Concert
Die Erste Walpurgisnacht tells the story of a band of pagan druids who are beset upon by Christian invaders and — unlike in any other Romantic oratorio — the pagans win! Druids were in the air in 1831: they were also the subject of Bellini’s great dramatic opera Norma. The centerpiece of our concert is Robert Schumann’s cello concerto, performed by a phenomenal young soloist — and Seattle native — Carson Ling-Efird, who joins Harmonia on a break from her studies at the Curtis Institute of Music.
- This performance will last approximately one hour and 45 minutes, including one intermission.
Maestro’s Prelude
Good evening, and welcome to Hallowe’en in May! If you came here tonight looking for DruidCon 2025 but found yourself at our concert instead, I don’t think you’ll be disappointed.
Our theme tonight is Paganism & Druidry, and it gets off to a rollicking start with the overture to Bellini’s opera Norma. Set in Roman Gaul, the opera’s plot centers around a steamy love triangle between two Druid priestesses and a Roman overlord, which erupts into an open conflagration (quite literally). Norma is a bel canto opera, a style that emphasizes voluptuous vocal lines above all else, and like most of these works, its instrumental music is rarely recognized in its own right, but I think this piece is a real humdinger with some great tunes.
As far as Druids are concerned, we’re not going to get more on-theme than with Felix Mendelssohn’s Die Erste Walpurgisnacht. This is an incredible work that virtually no one has ever heard of, and I think this all comes down to the title. Even if you translate it into English, it’s just “The First Walpurgis Night,” which is hardly any less head-scratching. If Mendelssohn had instead called it “The Druids’ Midnight Revenge,” I think this piece would be a Top 40 hit.
Picture it: 800 AD in the Harz Mountains of Northern Germany. A band of Druids seeks to perform their springtime rituals atop the local mountain peak, but they know that doing so risks death at the hands of the encroaching Christian settlers. They decide to use the Christians’ belief system against them, dressing as devils and scattering throughout the woods. When the Christians arrive, the Druids put on an epic spookfest and the Christians beat a hasty retreat. The pagans celebrate their victory with a rousing anthem (which admittedly has a certain Lutheran ring to it, but such was Mendelssohn’s wont).
What does any of this pagan stuff have to do with the Schumann cello concerto? Well, in a way, nothing, but in another way, quite a lot. If I could sum it up in one word (and I believe I can) that word would be: Romanticism.
Because Norma and Die Erste Walpurgisnacht are dramatic works, it’s easy to see how they are awash in Romantic themes such as the macabre and tragic love, but Robert Schumann swam in those same artistic waters — we need look no further than the 300 songs he wrote in his short lifespan. Schumann was a profoundly literary musician, and he developed his musical ideas in tandem with poetic texts. The better we know his songs and character pieces, the more easily we can see how his instrumental works were telling stories and singing songs, albeit without words.
I doubt you’ll have any trouble hearing the poetry as it spins forth from the cello of our excellent soloist, Carson Ling-Efird. I’ve had the pleasure of collaborating with Carson before, and I can tell you that she’s truly something special.
— William White
About the Soloist
Nineteen-year-old cellist Carson Ling-Efird, a Seattle native, is currently a second-year student at the Curtis Institute of Music, studying cello with Peter Wiley, Gary Hoffman, Christine Lee, Nick Canellakis and Yumi Kendall. She made her solo debut with the Seattle Symphony in 2018 at the age of 12 after being selected as a Seattle Symphony Young Artist. In
2019, she was a KING-FM Young Artist Award grand-prize winner and the recipient of the Seattle Chamber Music Society Monika Meyer Clowes Memorial Award. She made her international solo debut with the Taipei Symphony Orchestra Youth in January 2020, and in November of that year appeared on NPR’s From the Top as a fellow. This past summer she studied in France at the Ecoles d’Art Américaines de Fontainebleau. In addition to cello, Ms. Ling-Efird began studying piano at age six while spending a year with her family in Kunming, China, and composition in the summer of 2017. From 2019 to 2023, she was a selected participant in the Seattle Symphony’s Merriman Family Young Composers Workshop program, during which time Seattle Symphony musicians premiered her compositions. Her latest work, Procession Quintet, is scored for piano, clarinet, flute, violin and cello. Ms. Ling-Efird plays a Matthias Neuner cello (Mittenwald, 1807), generously loaned to her by the Carlsen Cello Foundation.