Musicians’ lives instrumental in creation of cello-flute work

Husband-and-wife musicians Eliot Bailen and Susan Rotholz had a unique dilemma. As a cellist and flutist, respectively, they wanted to play together. But there were virtually no concertos written for the two instruments.

So Bailen wrote one.

The duo will join the Modesto Symphony Orchestra as featured soloists in the premiere professional performance of Bailen’s Double Concerto for flute and cello on April 17-18 at the Gallo Center for the Arts.

“One of the reasons it was composed was because (a conductor) had wanted us each to play a concerto with his orchestra but said it was too bad we can’t have both of you at once,” Bailen said.

“I thought about it for a moment and realized there’s no concerto for flute and cello that I’m aware of. So I said, ‘What if I write you one?’ So part of it was to create something for the repertoire for the two instruments together. And since it was my wife I was writing for, I decided to make it about our life together.”

Modesto Symphony Orchestra Music Director David Lockington will lead the concert, which will include performances of Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 6 and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s “The Marriage of Figaro (Le nozze di Figaro)” overture.

New York-based Bailen and Rotholz play together in the New York Chamber Ensemble and Sherman Chamber Ensemble, which they also founded together. This will be both artists’ debut with the Modesto orchestra.

The couple met in 1979 at Yale University, when Lockington also was there. In fact, Lockington was on stage with them when they were introduced. The pair wed in 1987.

“(The concerto) is three movements,” Bailen said. “The first movement is the early romance part of it. The second movement is the pursuit, the eight years it took me to get her to marry me. And I tease her and say I made the flute part really hard to get back at her.

“Then the third movement is basically about an illness she had. And then later it bursts into a light, jazzy kind of ending. That’s called ‘Family Life.’

“So there’s kind of a story line and something to hang your hat on a little bit when listening.”

Bailen has had an active career both as a composer and performer. He serves as principal cello for the New Jersey Festival Orchestra, Orchestra New England, New York Bach Artists, Teatro Grattacielo and the New Choral Society. From 1993 through 1997, he was the featured guest artist on Nickelodeon’s “Eureeka’s Castle.”

He said part of his motivation in writing Double Concerto for flute and cello was to showcase his wife’s skills. In addition to her work with Bailen in the two chamber ensembles, she is principal flute of the Greenwich Symphony and a member of the Orchestra of St. Luke’s, the New York Pops and the Little Orchestra Society.

Rotholtz also has toured extensively with the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra and performs with the American Symphony, New York City Ballet, Westchester Philharmonic, Gotham Opera Company, Encores! at City Center and the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra.

“My wife is an incredibly wonderful flutist and I wanted to show her off; that’s part of what I wanted to do,” he said. “The relationship of the two instruments, too, was interesting. They are kind of very different, but they can be complementary, as well.”

This story was originally published April 8, 2015 at 5:00 PM with the headline "Musicians’ lives instrumental in creation of cello-flute work."