Meet the Crew: Tina Tallon

Name: Tina Tallon

Nickname: My nickname in high school cross country/track and multivariable calculus was The Claw (since my last name often autocorrects to "Talon"). I've also been called T-Squared, or, less desirably, Tina the Tuna (although I do love fish tacos, so it turns out that it's rather apropos).

Titles: Photo and video documentarian and recording engineer at PCMF. Also composer, violinist, soprano, programmer, biological engineer, and fish taco connoisseur.

Friday night libation: A nice peaty single malt scotch, or a gin & tonic. Otherwise, anything with mezcal in it (...including straight-up mezcal).

Favorite piece that's being performed at PCMF 2016 and why: Am I allowed to have a favorite piece without ever having heard it? I'm particularly excited to hear Anthony Cheung's Violin Sonata on August 6th, as I love the rest of his music and am sure that this one is similarly well-crafted and engaging (and I can't find a recording anywhere, so I'm doubly intrigued)! As a composer, new music is what gets me particularly excited, and getting to document pieces I've never heard before is always an adventure. 

What are you looking forward most about spending a week in the Bay Area? My personal mission as a documentarian is to support artists who are working to bring music to a wider audience, and I am very excited about the educational outreach work that PCMF will be doing in Oakland. (Also, I've heard tell that cellist-extraordinaire Debbie Pae is an amazing chef, and I'm hoping to have the chance to sample some of her gourmet creations!)

What's the craziest or most memorable thing that's happened to you during a performance? During my last concert with my undergraduate choir (we were singing Haydn's "Creation"), a woman in the audience had a stroke and went into cardiac arrest (in the most cruelly ironic fashion possible, it was during Part The Second, around the time when the angel Uriel speaks about the breath of life...). The woman, her family, and the medical personnel involved were unbelievably courteous and level-headed, and managed to charge a defibrillator, whisper "clear," resuscitate her, and roll her out on a stretcher without interrupting the performance. Our conductor was so in the zone that he had no idea what was happening and kept conducting, all while the chorus and soloists were watching the situation unfold out in the audience and growing more and more horrified. Our stage manager at one point did pop out from the wings and whisper-yell the conductor's name to try to get his attention and suspend the performance, but he ignored her because he thought she was one of his parents or friends trying to say hello from the audience at an inopportune moment. Thankfully, the woman survived, but I will never again wish anyone good luck before a performance by means of an idiom involving bodily harm ("knock 'em dead," "break a leg," etc... ‪#‎tooclosetohome‬).

Meet the Musicians: Wayne Lee

Name: Wayne
Nickname: "The Stomach"
Instrument: Violin
Friday night libation: Seltzer and a Balvenie 12

Favorite piece that's being performed at PCMF 2016 and why:
I love every piece that we've programmed, but I reserve a special place in my heart for Anthony Cheung's sonata, which was written for me at the end of high school and beginning of college. Looking back, we were incredibly young then — but you wouldn't know it from the beauty and sophistication of the piece.

What are you looking forward most about spending a week in the Bay Area?
Reconnecting with the countless friends and mentors in the Bay Area who have known me and supported me since I was in diapers.

What's the craziest or most memorable thing that's happened to you during a performance?
A few years ago, I was playing piano trios for a fundraising event at a large public library auditorium in Flushing, Queens. It turned out to be an audience clearly unaccustomed to attending chamber music performances. At one point — I think I was in the middle of the slow movement of Mendelssohn's C minor Trio — a ringer went off, and a woman in one of the front rows (she may have also been eating her way through a bucket of fried chicken) shouted into her phone, "Hello? Hello?? I can't hear you, there's a bunch of people playing music in here!"

Meet the Musicians: Deborah Pae

Name: Deborah Pae
Nickname: Deb, Debbie, Doobs, Debbuh, Debbie-ahhhh...(the list is long), but the best might be Madame President!
Instrument: Cello
Friday night libation: Depends on how I'm feeling, but it's always between an amazing single malt whiskey, red wine, or IPA.

Favorite piece that's being performed at PCMF 2016 and why: Brahms Clarinet Quintet is so exquisite but I'm also really looking forward to the Adams John's Book of Alleged Dances.

What are you looking forward most about spending a week in the Bay Area? I have NEVER been to San Francisco before (connections in the airport don't count) so this trip is going in the history books! I hear from Wayne and Juliana that I have a gastronomic tour awaiting. I might have to go straight to In-and-Out from the airport...

What's the craziest or most memorable thing that's happened to you during a performance? When I was 13, I played at the 45th GRAMMY Awards at Madison Square Garden. It was by far one of the coolest experiences I ever had, playing for almost 20,000 people and sitting next to some of the biggest pop, hip-hop, and country music stars. It was the year of Norah Jones, Alicia Keys, and John Mayer wiped the categories so I was star-struck seeing them perform and I remember sitting behind or very close to Ludacris and Nelly...like, WHAT?! There was also a moment backstage where I stood next to a whole collection of freshly polished Grammy trophies waiting to be given to the winners. It was worth skipping school that day...

Meet the Musicians: Jasmine Lin

Name: Jasmine Lin
Nicknames: Bonbon, Egg, The One With the Billowy Pants, Little White, J8
Instrument: Violin
Friday night libation: Twice-filtered water

Favorite piece that's being performed at PCMF 2016 and why:
It's not necessarily my "favorite", but I'm rubbing my hands in anticipation for the Adams John's Book of Alleged Dances. Pitting a string quartet against a machine is deliciously dangerous.

What are you looking forward most about spending a week in the Bay Area?
Making music with the extraordinary PCMF artists and breathing in the ocean air.

What's the craziest or most memorable thing that's happened to you during a performance?
This might be too much information, but I had to wear a bra as my underwear once.

Meet the Musicians: Juliana Han

Name: Juliana
Nickname: Pablo
Instrument: Piano
Friday night libation: Something gin based. 

Favorite piece that's being performed at PCMF 2016 and why:
I'm excited for Bolcom's Second Piano Quartet on the Saturday evening concert. I went to college in the Napster days and spent my nights immersed in the rap music that my dorm mates always had playing. I learned that I'm a total sucker for intense rhythmic beats, and the Bolcom has it in spades.

What are you looking forward most about spending a week in the Bay Area?
Egg tarts from Oakland's Chinatown. Those little golden crowns of flaky crusted perfection will never know what hit them.

What's the craziest or most memorable thing that's happened to you during a performance?
As a pianist, you have to take the piano you're dealt. At one church concert, I was told to put the lid up on half-stick because of the stage setup. I was happy to oblige, but the piano only had the full-stick, without the shorter stick that's sometimes attached. Certain that he was mistaken, I informed the house manager, who told me (somewhat exasperatedly) to look again inside the piano. I looked - and there, inside, was a sawed-off 2 by 4. Literally a half stick. I propped up the lid and played the concert trying not to look at it.

My precioussss...

My precioussss...

Meet the Musicians: Carol McGonnell

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Name: Carol McGonnell
Nickname: My mom calls me Carollypolly.
Instrument: Clarinet
Friday night libation: It's Friday and I'm drinking dandelion tea. Boring...

Favorite piece that's being performed at PCMF 2016 and why:
Brahms Clarinet Quintet. I am of Roma descent and this piece is so gypsy, especially the slow movement.

What are you looking forward most about spending a week in the Bay Area?
Sourdough croissants at Arizmendi.

What's the craziest or most memorable thing that's happened to you during a performance?
Falling in love :-) But I guess it's best when that always happens on stage, in some shape or form.

Meet the Musicians: Clarissa Lyons

Clarissa Lyons, resident baker.

Clarissa Lyons, resident baker.

Name: Clarissa Lyons
Instrument: Voice
Friday night indulgence: Nearly any baked good or good ice cream and as much Law and Order SVU as I can ingest.

Favorite piece that's being performed at PCMF 2016 and why:
Chausson's Chanson Perpetuelle. This was the first piece I performed at the Tanglewood Music Center in 2011, and was one of my first real experiences with chamber music. The piece not only reminds me of my two magical summers in the Berkshires, but reminds me to listen and learn from new collaborators and new sound worlds.

What are you looking forward most about spending a week in the Bay Area?
Spending time with my friends and family and EATING! Zachary's, Ici, Fenton's, and wandering Telegraph are all high on my list.

What's the craziest or most memorable thing that's happened to you during a performance?During a performance at St. Mark's in Berkeley with the UC Berkeley Chamber Chorus, I noticed a cat begin to walk up the center aisle. I was just about to sing a solo in a piece by Meredith Monk, so I turned my focus to the music ahead of me. As I began to sing, I noticed my mom and friends (who were sitting in the front pew) hiding laughter behind their programs. I was so irritated and annoyed when intermission finally arrived. My fellow choristers alerted me to the fact that the cat had been coughing up a hairball during my solo just to the left of the singing area, thus leading to the laughter.