FREE Courtroom Concert: Maria Jette, soprano; Stephanie Arado, violin; Sonja Thompson, piano

Hosted by composer Abbie Betinis, our popular Courtroom Concerts take place at noon most Thursdays in the Landmark Center in downtown Saint Paul. This series features accomplished musicians and composers from the Twin Cities and surrounding area, as well as occasional musical newcomers to the area. These one-hour concerts are free and open to the public.

About the Program:

Gabriel Fauré was an amazing force in French music during a time of immense change. A church musician, reviewer, Director of the Paris Conservatoire and innovative composer, he is considered a link between 19th century Romanticism and 20th century Modernism. Join us as we explore Fauré’s stylistic development from his first song, “Le Papillon et la fleur” (Op. 1) to one of his last songs, “Paradis” from La Chanson d’Eve (Op. 95), and the work that according to his teacher, Camille Saint-Saens, “put him on the map” as a composer: the Sonata for Violin and Piano in A Major, Op. 13

About the Artists:

Maria Jette has performed with innumerable orchestras and chamber groups, in operas (portraying characters ranging from Handel’s Cleopatra and Mozart’s Fiordiligi through Britten’s Fido, the coloratura dog), and at music festivals throughout the country and abroad, as well as in her home base of Minneapolis-St. Paul (Minnesota Orchestra, Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, Chamber Music Society of MN, Lyra Baroque, Ex Machina Baroque Opera, Vocalessence et al.). She made many appearances on Garrison Keillor’s A Prairie Home Companion in its last 20+ years; and even more with the Schubert Club, dating back well into the 20th C!

Some recent and upcoming activities: musical time-travel to Sing-Sing with Dan Chouinard (exploring an all-convict performance of PG Wodehouse/Jerome Kern’s Oh, Lady! Lady!! in 1923) for The Wodehouse Society’s 2024 convention, and a zany Halloween show (with Dan, Prudence Johnson and Dane Stauffer) at The Dakota. On Sunday Dec. 7 at 4, she and Sonja Thompson will present an exotic set of Christmas-adjacent songs by the top Parisian composers of 1890, Contes mystiques, at Plymouth Congregational Church in Minneapolis (free!); and the next week she’ll join a mini-tour of Christmas shows with Garrison Keillor— in St. Paul (Dec. 13-14), New York City, and Galveston.

Her 45+ operatic roles range from Monteverdi’s Poppea and Handel’s Cleopatra through Mozart’s Pamina, Countess and Fiordiligi, many of them with the late, lamented Ex Machina Antique Music Theatre in the Twin Cities. With The Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, she starred as the Mrs. in the May 2002 premiere of Garrison Keillor’s operatic excursion, Mr. and Mrs. Olson. She has performed her own production of Seuss/Kapilow’s Green Eggs & Ham for more than 50,000 kids, with symphonies and music festivals around the USA.

Sonja Thompson (piano) has spent decades teaching, performing, improvising, collaborating, and assisting with the development of new works. She holds degrees from the University of Minnesota and The Juilliard School. Performing credits include solo work, chamber music, church music, song recitals, Music Theater/Opera, with special interests in Nordic music, new music, and programs that mix genres and styles. In the twin cities Sonja has worked with VocalEssence, Nautilus Music Theater, Theater Latte Da, MN History Theater, Frank Theater, Schubert Club, Minnesota Orchestra, Minnesota Opera and others.

Violinist Stephanie Arado’s career encompasses a wide range of performance and teaching experience. She most recently completed a year of teaching at the Interlochen Arts Academy, an institution she graduated from in 1982. She occupied the Loring M. Staples Chair as Assistant Concertmaster of the Minnesota Orchestra from 1991 to 2013. During the 1995/96 season, Ms. Arado served as Concertmaster of The Colorado Symphony under the baton of Marin Alsop. While in Minneapolis, she maintained a private teaching studio and was a founding member of the Bakken Trio, a premier chamber music organization in the Twin Cities. Through her work with the Bakken Trio she has collaborated with many living composers and commissioned numerous chamber compositions. Ms. Arado continues to serve as a Co-Artistic Director of the Bakken.

Ms. Arado played her first solo recital at the age of eight. She went on to debut with the Chicago Symphony as a 12 year old; following that she has performed as a soloist with symphony orchestras throughout the US, including the Detroit, St. Louis, and Minnesota Orchestras. As a 21-year-old Ms. Arado was the first American ever invited to play with the European Union Youth Orchestra led by Claudio Abbado and Leonard Bernstein. She was also invited to perform as a part of the prestigious chamber music festival Musiktreffen in St. Moritz, Switzerland with Paul Tortelier and Yuri Bashmet, two of the most renowned chamber musicians of the century.

She was born and raised in Chicago. She began playing the violin at the age of five using the Suzuki method with Sister Mary Ricardo of La Grange. She was fortunate to have worked with many fine violin pedagogues in her youth including Paul Rolland, Eugene Gratovich and David Cerrone at the famous Meadowmount School. She spent five summers as a Fellowship student at the Aspen Music School. She received her Bachelor of Fine Arts in Music at Western Illinois University (Macomb, IL) studying with Almita and Roland Vamos, and completed her Masters Degree at Juilliard in New York City under the tutelage of Dorothy Delay and Paul Kantor.