ABOUT THE PERFORMERS
Oboist Caitlin Broms-Jacobs Renowned for her “gorgeous singing tone” and “sensitive musicality”, (Winnipeg Free Press) Canadian oboist Caitlin Broms-Jacobs leads a multifaceted career as a soloist, orchestral, and chamber musician. She is the principal oboist of the Manitoba Chamber Orchestra, a position she has held since 2009.
Caitlin has performed across Canada as one half of oboe and piano duo Fierbois, with pianist Madeline Hildebrand. Caitlin and Madeline’s debut album, Sing to Me Again, was released in January 2025 to critical acclaim. “They're two of our city's finest musicians. Artistically enticing, sympathetic, creative and dynamic.” (Winnipeg’s Classic 107) Fierbois will tour Western Canada with Prairie Debut for the 25-26 season.
Described as “always sublime” (Winnipeg Free Press) Caitlin’s recent concerto performances include appearances with Sinfonia Toronto and the Manitoba Chamber Orchestra, giving the world premiere of Prayer in a Green Cathedral by Kevin Lau.
As a chamber musician and recitalist, Caitlin has appeared at numerous festivals in Canada and abroad, including the Toronto Summer Music Festival, Under the Spire, The Banff Centre, and Winnipeg’s prestigious Millennium Recital Series.
Caitlin was the Artistic Director and co-founder of the highly successful Liberty Village New Artist Series, a series of chamber music concerts held at the Academy of Spherical Arts in Toronto in 2009.
Originally from Toronto, Caitlin studied with Keith Atkinson at the Royal Conservatory of Music’s Young Artists Performance Academy. She holds a Bachelor of Music degree from the Eastman School of Music where she studied with Richard Killmer. Caitlin furthered her studies with San Francisco Symphony Orchestra principal oboist Eugene Izotov.
Violinist Tina Sievers has played the violin since age 3 and the piano since age 5. She studies violin at the Taylor Academy with Mayumi Seiler.
Tina has received many accolades, including 1st place awards for solo and chamber at the Ontario Music Festivals Association Provincial Competition (2019, 2021-2025), and winner of the York Chamber Ensemble Concerto Competition (2025) and the Sinfonia Toronto Concerto Competition (2025).
Tina has performed as a soloist with the Toronto Symphony Orchestra (2024), the Odin Quartet (2023, 2024), and the Canadian Sinfonietta Youth Orchestra (2021).
Tina has participated in several orchestras, including the Toronto Symphony Youth Orchestra (2021-present, where she serves as co-concertmaster) and the National Youth Orchestra of Canada (2025, where she served as co-concertmaster). She is also an active chamber musician, playing with the Tinangellie trio (2019-present) and the Trio Élan Aria (2025-present).
Sinfonia Toronto now in its 28th season, has toured twice in Europe, in the US, South America and China, receiving glowing reviews. It has released six CD’s, including a JUNO Award winner, and performs in many Ontario cities. Its extensive repertoire includes all the major string orchestra works of the 18th through 21st centuries, and it has premiered many new works. Under the baton of Nurhan Arman the orchestra’s performances present outstanding international guest artists and prominent Canadian musicians.
Maestro Nurhan Arman has conducted throughout Europe, Asia, South America, Canada and the US, returning regularly to many orchestras in Europe. Among the orchestras Maestro Arman has conducted are the Moscow Philharmonic, Deutsches Kammerorchester Frankfurt, Filarmonica Italiana, Orchestra Sinfonico di Roma, St. Petersburg State Hermitage Orchestra, Orchestre Regional d’Ile de France, Hungarian Symphony, Arpeggione Kammerorchester, Milano Classica and Belgrade Philharmonic.
ABOUT THE MUSIC
Oboe Concerto in D minor, BWV 1059 by Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750)
Leipzig was one of the most active musical cities in Germany during the 1730s and 1740s, and Bach was the most important and busiest musician there, preparing new church pieces, directing and performing them and composing for and directing the Collegium Musicum’s weekly concerts.
Like many composers of his time, Bach borrowed and rearranged his own previous works and the works of others. This was considered a completely reasonable way to ensure enough repertoire. Bach studied, emulated and at times borrowed from Vivaldi, especially, and often used Vivaldi’s structure of three movements in a fast, slow, fast sequence, as well as his ritornello form, a refrain alternating with contrasting episodes.
It was also normal during Bach’s time to write works without specifying which instrument should play a solo part, perhaps in order to allow for performance by the best musician available for the performance. This concerto for oboe was originally the D minor keyboard concerto. Probably the best known of Bach’s keyboard concertos, the D minor Concerto was itself created from other originals. the first and second movements were re-cast from Bach’s Cantata 146: “We must endure great hardship” and the third movement was the sinfonia (overture) of his Cantata 188: “I have my faith.” The cantata movements in turn were likely transcribed from a violin concerto that has been lost.
The concerto’s highly unified first movement opens with an urgent theme, played by the soloist and orchestra in unison and octaves, which returns in a developmental episode and then closes, again in unison and octaves. The middle movement’s G minor harmonies continue the work’s dark character, unlike Bach’s other minor-mode concertos where the slow movement is usually in a major key. The Adagio has a poignant cantilena (lyrical) solo line over a repeating pattern in the bass (basso ostinato or ground bass) of thirteen measures, which is played in unison and octaves to open and close the movement. The last movement’s relentless drive is relieved by a cadenza just before the final appearance of the main theme.
Rondo In A Major for Violin and Orchestra, D.438 by Franz Schubert (1797-1828)
In spite of a short and unhappy life, Franz Schubert was an astonishingly prolific composer and one of the greatest melodists who ever lived. He would certainly have changed the course of Western music if he had lived longer. He wrote more than a thousand works, including over 600 songs, a wealth of chamber music, many piano pieces, ten symphonies, and incidental music for the theatre, with the majority of his works still beloved and performed today.
“I write all day,” Schubert told a visitor, “and when I have finished one piece I begin another.” The tragedy of his early death is expressed in an epitaph by his friend, the poet Franz Grillparzer engraved on Schubert’s tombstone: “Here music has buried a treasure, but even fairer hopes.”
Schubert composed this Rondo in June 1816, but it was not published until 1897. The first section is an Adagio introduction that weaves a magical web of sound through which the solo violin dances in cascading runs and awesome leaps. The main Rondo is carefree and virtuosic.
Zigeunerweisen (Gypsy Airs) for Violin and Orchestra by Pablo de Sarasate (1844-1908)
Orchestral arrangement by Nurhan Arman
Sarasate wrote Zigeunerweisen in 1878 as a showpiece for his own performing career, and premiered it in Leipzig. Based on themes of the Roma people, Zigeunerweisen is Sarasate’s most popular composition. Ever since its first hearing it has remained a staple of the repertoire, both on stage and in recordings - beginning with Sarasate’s own recording in 1904.
Zigeunerweisen is written as one continuous movement, surging through four very different emotional states. The opening moderato section is a noble but foreboding theme that devolves into a mournful lento that feels spontaneous and improvised, with emotional interjections by the violin that incorporate rapid scales and other technically demanding passages. Next the muted violin expresses an even more melancholy meditation on life’s trials and tribulations, but then bursts into the rapid final section, Allegro molto vivace, which requires extreme virtuosity to portray a scene of hectic joy and excitement.
String Quartet K. 387a, “Spring” by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791)
Orchestra version by Nurhan Arman
Mozart's String Quartet No.14 in G major K.387, commonly known as the "Spring" quartet, is one of his best-known chamber works. Composed in 1782, it is the first of Mozart's six "Haydn" quartets, written after a period of study under Joseph Haydn and in tribute to the older composer.
By the time he wrote this quartet, Mozart was already starting to enjoy success. Newly established in Vienna, he often performed as a pianist and was soon recognized as “the finest keyboard player in Vienna," according to one commentator. He also prospered as a composer; in 1782 his opera The Abduction from the Seraglio achieved great success and was soon being performed throughout German-speaking Europe, confirming Mozart's reputation as a composer.
Mozart was also starting to enjoy romance and marriage. After failing to win the hand of Aloysia Weber, Mozart shifted his interest to her sister, Constanze. The courtship did not go smoothly. He and Constanze briefly separated in April 1782, but then did marry. With the earnings from his concerts and compositions, Mozart and his wife adopted a luxurious lifestyle, moving to an expensive apartment and purchasing a fine fortepiano and a billiard table. They sent their son to an expensive boarding school and kept servants. Mozart saved little for the future, but this was a joyful period, which shows in this work.
The “Spring” Quartet earned its nickname because of its cheerful, lighthearted character, reminiscent of the freshness and vitality of spring. The opening movement is lively and bright, full of sudden shifts in tempo and texture. It begins with a sprightly theme for the cello and viola, soon picked up by the violins. The second theme, in the relative key of E minor, offers a moment of contrast before returning to the lively G major of the opening.
The second movement is a minuet, usually the third movement in a standard quartet. A typical dance form of the time, it has a lilting rhythm and playful character, with the violins and viola exchanging melodies throughout. The trio in the middle has a darker, unsettled mood, offering contrast with a slower, more introspective theme.
In the third movement, a lyrical, contemplative melody passes between all the instruments, with the viola and cello featured in the middle section. The final movement ends the quartet energetically, with joyful themes weaving among the instruments in a lively and intricate dance. Sudden shifts in tempo and mood remind us of the first movement, and the piece scurries to a conclusion with a rousing accelerando.
