Ginkgoh Salon
Recreating the elegant musical salon of 19th-century Europe.
The chamber music duo Ginkgoh Salon delights audiences with rediscovered repertoire and fresh interpretations. Their album Oboe Salon features beautiful chamber music by 19th century women composers, including many premiere recordings. It is available as a limited edition CD, featuring artwork by French artist Emmanuelle Ayrton, and as digital download / streaming on Bandcamp.
Ginkgoh gives voice to rediscovered music of 19th century women composers. In his poem “Ginkgo biloba”, the German poet Goethe muses on the twofold nature of the ginkgo leaf and on his own duality. The oboe, oboe d’amore, and English horn are all instruments with a double reed. The ginkgo leaf symbolizes both the double reed instruments and the musical duo.
Salon Recitals
Ann Lemke and Amanda Sabelhaus recreate the intimate atmosphere of the 19th century European salon, where music, literature, and inspiration are shared in an elegant home setting.
You will enjoy a variety of works for piano solo, piano with oboe, and piano with the English horn and the rare oboe d’amore. You also learn about the fascinating lives and cultural milieu of the women composers as Dr. Ann Lemke shares background information on them and the poetry that they set to music.
The duo has performed salon recitals in historic settings such as Cranbrook House (Bloomfield Hills, MI) and the Ladies’ Library Association of Kalamazoo.
Ann Lemke, oboe, oboe d’amore & English horn
Amanda Sabelhaus, piano
Oboe Salon
Beautiful chamber music by 19th century women composers
Many premiere recordings!
Welcome to the Oboe Salon, an imaginary space where five fascinating 19th century women composers come together in our music.
The CD itself is a beautiful work of art. The cover and digipak were designed by French artist Emmanuelle Ayrton, and it is the only CD with an illustration by her currently available.
Listen to Samples
Oboe Tracks 1 - 7
Clémence de Grandval: Two Pieces for Oboe and Piano, dedicated to the legendary French oboist Georges Gillet *first recording with this instrumentation
Clara Schumann: Three Romances, Op. 22, originally composed for violin and piano and dedicated to violin virtuoso Joseph Joachim. Arranged for oboe by Ann Lemke.
Fanny Mendelssohn Hensel Adagio composed on May 28, 1823 for violin and piano, arranged for oboe by Ann Lemke *first recording with this instrumentation
Clémence de Grandval: Concerto for Oboe, Op. 7, II. Andantino con moto. Dedicated to Georges Gillet. *first recording with this instrumentation
Oboe d’amore Tracks 8 - 13
The oboe d’amore tracks are Ann Lemke’s transcriptions of songs for voice and piano. Click here to read the original poems in German and Ann’s English translations. All of these pieces are recorded here for the first time with this instrumentation.
Bettina von Arnim: The first two songs were published in her collection dedicated to Gaspare Spontini: #5 Herbstgefühl (poetry by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe) and #4 Ein Stern der Lieb’ am Himmelslauf (poetry by Achim von Arnim). The third, Ach neige, du Schmerzenreiche, is a setting from Goethe’s Faust.
Johanna Kinkel: Op. 7 is a collection of six songs originally published under the name Johanna Matthieux and dedicated to Bettina von Arnim. For this album, we chose #1 Nachtlied (poetry by Emmanuel Geibel), #2 Wunsch (poetry by August Kopisch), and #5 An den Mond (poetry by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe)
English horn Tracks 14 - 17
Clémence de Grandval: Four Pieces for English Horn and Piano dedicated to Georges Gillet.
©℗ 2022 Ann Lemke. All rights reserved.
Meet the Composers
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Ginkgoh!
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Clémence de Grandval (1828 – 1907)
prolific French composer, pianist, and singer who composed exceptional works for oboe and English horn
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Clara Schumann (1819 – 1896)
virtuoso German pianist who concertized across Europe, composed, and taught piano
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Fanny Mendelssohn Hensel (1805 – 1847)
gifted German pianist and prolific composer who organized private concerts at her home in Berlin
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Bettina von Arnim (1785 – 1859)
celebrated German writer, author of Goethe’s Correspondence With a Child and other epistolary books, who composed songs
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Johanna Kinkel (1810 – 1858)
German composer, pianist, pedagogue, writer, and director of choral concerts in Bonn, who emigrated to London following the 1848-49 revolution
Meet the Artists
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Oboe, oboe d’amore, English horn, program notes, project conception
Ann Lemke enjoys a multi-faceted career as performer, teacher, and scholar of women composers. She performs internationally as a soloist, chamber and orchestral musician.
Ann is principal oboist with the Rochester Symphony Orchestra and the International Symphony Orchestra, comprised of US and Canadian members. She gave the modern-day premiere of Clémence de Grandval’s Oboe Concerto with the International Symphony, and has been a featured presenter at the Juilliard School, the Beethoven-Haus Bonn, and at International Double Reed Society conferences.
A native of Metro Detroit, Ann studied with Elaine Douvas at the Manhattan School of Music before completing a doctoral degree at Indiana University (Music and German Literature). Fascinated with the lives and works of women composers, Ann conducted research in Germany as a Fulbright scholar and has numerous publications on women composers. She taught at Indiana University and Oakland University, and has been a member of the Cranbrook Schools music faculty for over 20 years.
Ann Lemke's renowned Oboe Studio offers quality instruction and enriching opportunities to students of all ages.
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Piano
Filipino-American pianist Amanda Sabelhaus is a highly acclaimed collaborative artist renowned for her exceptional versatility. With a career dedicated to vocal and instrumental accompanying, Amanda has collaborated with a wide range of performers across genres including classical, jazz, and musical theatre.
Amanda has performed at renowned venues including Stern Auditorium at Carnegie Hall, the Kennedy Center, and participated in prestigious festivals including three seasons at the International Flute Festival with Sir James and Lady Jeanne Galway in Switzerland. Amanda’s work has been featured on WRCJ in Detroit and has received critical acclaim for its depth and sensitivity.
For fifteen years she performed as a touring artist with the Michigan Opera Theatre and served as the official accompanist for the Metropolitan Opera National Council auditions in Detroit.
Amanda is a masterful improvisational pianist renowned for her exceptional creativity and virtuosity.
In addition to her performance career, Amanda serves as the Coordinator of Collaborative Piano for the Voice Department at Oakland University.
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Cover Art, Graphic Design
French artist Emmanuelle Ayrton, created illustrations for the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra. Her books of illustrations, including Les Musiciens: scènes de vie (self-published in 2018) and Silence! Singers at Work, with an introduction by the internationally acclaimed opera singer Joyce DiDonato (Peters, 2015), show musicians’ everyday lives in a humorous way. Her approachable drawings, which aim to assert the necessity of music and the arts in all of our lives, have been exhibited in France. Emmanuelle studied at Parsons School of Design in Paris and New York and lives in France. See EmmanuelleAyrton.com
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Recording, mixing, and mastering
Recording engineer Terry Herald is a faculty member and Technical Coordinator at Oakland University’s School of Music, Theater & Dance, where he teaches audio techniques, film music, and composition. He has a wealth of experience as a composer, conductor, arranger and classical guitarist. He composed the orchestral score for the award-winning PBS special Air Force One: The Planes and the Presidents, the original score for the film Journey to Justice, and Fantasie on Danny Boy, commissioned as a tribute to Sir James Galway. Terry serves as music director for guitarist Earl Klugh and jazz flutist Alexander Zonjic. See TerryHerald.com