Friday, October 12, 2012

Promenade! Art Walk Concert, 1/2/2013 @ 7 p.m.



Boyan Bonev, cello

Shaun Bennett, horn 

Austin Clark, piano

Katherine Adams, piano

  • BACH: Suite for Solo Cello No. 1 in G major, BWV 1007
  • MOZART: Horn Concerto No. 3 in E-flat major, K. 447
  • MOZART: Piano Sonata No. 16 in C Major, K. 545
  • CASSADO: Suite for Solo Cello
  • MOZART: Piano Fantasia No. 3 in D Minor, K. 397

Bulgarian cellist Boyan Bonev has participated in numerous master classes and music festivals in the United States and Europe. An active performer of solo and chamber music, Dr. Bonev has taken part in concert and educational programs for the Bulgarian National Television and Radio, and is a prize winner of national and international competitions. He teaches cello and double bass at the University of West Florida, and previously taught at Albany State University and Darton College. He is on the faculty of the Florida State University Summer Music Camps, and he taught cello and chamber music as a Graduate Assistant at FSU while working on his doctorate there. Dr. Bonev performs with the Tallahassee, Pensacola, Mobile, Florida Lakes, and Northwest Florida Symphony Orchestras. He has been a featured soloist with the Florida Lakes Symphony Orchestra and the Stara Zagora Symphony Orchestra, and he has performed at Carnegie Hall (Weill Recital Hall). This program marks his fourth appearance in concerts for Jacksonville Public Library.

Horn player Shaun Bennett is a member of the Coastal Symphony of Georgia in Brunswick, and he is the brass instructor at North Florida Music Academy in Orange Park. He earned his degree in Music Theory and Composition from Jacksonville University, and he also studied at the New Zealand School of Music in Wellington, New Zealand.
Jacksonville native Austin Clark is an Organ Scholar at the Episcopal Church of the Good Shepherd and an accompanist for the Choral Department at the University of North Florida. He attended Douglas Anderson School of the Arts, and is a graduate of Interlochen Arts Academy in Michigan. Mr. Clark is pursuing a degree in Piano Performance at UNF.

Pianist Katherine Adams began studying piano when she was five years old. She pursued her degree in Piano performance at Jacksonville University, where she was a student of Dr. Scott Watkins. She now resides in her hometown of Brunswick, Georgia, where she is a church musician at The Episcopal Church of Our Savior, Honey Creek. She also maintains a private studio, and teaches voice in addition to piano.




Once dismissed by many of his contemporaries as being too old-fashioned, the works of the great German Baroque master Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750) probably have been studied more than those of any other composer, making him perhaps the most influential musician of all time. And among works written for unaccompanied cello there is no doubt that Bach’s six Suites are the best known. Bach’s own manuscripts of the Cello Suites have never been found, but current research suggests that they were composed while Bach was at Cöthen, where he served as Kapellmeister from 1717-1723 in the court of Prince Leopold (1694-1728), and that they pre-date Bach’s well-known Sonatas and Partitas for Solo Violin, which were written in 1720. All six of the Cello Suites follow a standard six-movement pattern, but with the fifth movement dance types varying among minuets (in Suites 1, and 2) bourrées (in 3 and 4), and gavottes (in 5 and 6). Among all 36 movements of the six Suites, the popular Prelude from Suite No. 1 has had the most exposure: it’s been used as background music in television commercials hyping everything from sports cars and insurance to dog food.




Austrian-born Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756–1791), unquestionably one of the greatest composers in history, began his career as a 6-year-old piano prodigy touring Europe with his father (Leopold, 1719-1787) and sister (Maria Anna, or "Nannerl," 1751-1829), and he absorbed and mastered all the contemporary musical trends he was exposed to along the way. When Mozart reached the ripe old age of 7, he made the acquaintance of Joseph Leutgeb (1732-1811), one of his father's colleagues and a leading horn virtuoso of the day. Leutgeb remained a lifelong friend, and Mozart wrote his four horn concertos specifically for Leutgeb; the autograph copies of the solo horn parts even include personal messages from the composer to the performer.  The four horn concertos date from the last eight years of Mozart's short life, beginning with "No. 2" in 1783, and ending with "No. 1" in 1791, not long before his death. Mozart kept a catalog of his works, but it did not include what we know as Horn Concerto No. 3, K. 447 (it may have been second in order of composition). So exactly when it was completed is not known, but the mid-1780s is the likely timeframe. All four concertos have held places in the repertoire of virtually all professional horn players, and they certainly attest to the skill of Herr Leutgeb--the piston and valve horn we have today had not yet been invented, so performance on the "natural" horn requires a prodigious amount of hand and lip manipulation to play any tones outside the instrument's natural harmonic series.

Mozart’s graceful and charming Piano Sonata No. 16 in C major, K. 545, is likely the one that first comes to mind when his 18 works in the genre are mentioned. Despite its present-day popularity, the Sonata, dating from 1788, remained unpublished while Mozart was alive, not appearing in print until 1805. The clear-cut themes and formal structure are about as “Classical” as you can get, but the first movement sonata-form (i.e., using an "exposition-development-recapitulation" structure) boasts one anomaly: the recap begins in F major (the subdominant key) rather than in the expected home key of C major. Schubert and other later composers picked up on the idea, but it was very unusual when Mozart used it.

Left unfinished, Mozart’s Piano Fantasia in D minor, K. 397, is thought to have been composed in 1872, around the same time as the Prelude (Fantasy) and Fugue in C major, K. 394, and the Fantasy in C minor, K. 396. The manuscript of the D minor Fantasy ended on a dominant 7th chord, and Mozart originally may have planned to follow it with a fugue, as in K. 394. It was first published in its original, incomplete form in 1804, but a new edition came out two years later that included an additional 10 measures added by the publisher so the work could be performed without leaving the audience hanging. Comprised of three contrasting sections, The Fantasy has become one of Mozart’s most popular piano pieces. It opens with an Andante section reminiscent of Baroque-era preludes, replete with arpeggios. The second section, the longest of the three, is a melancholy Adagio that is interrupted by a couple of unmeasured cadenzas, and the final section is a spritely Allegretto in D Major.



By virtue of a scholarship from his hometown of Barcelona, Spain, a nine-year-old Gaspar Cassadó (1897-1966) was able to accept an invitation to study in Paris with the legendary Catalan cellist Pablo Casals, where, in addition to his cello lessons, Cassadó studied composition with both Manuel de Falla and Maurice Ravel. After World War I, Cassadó began a successful international career as both cellist and composer, including several concerts with Casals. During the1920s Cassadó settled permanently in Florence, Italy, and after World War II his reputation and career, not to mention his personal morale, suffered tremendously when his mentor unjustly accused him of sympathizing with Mussolini’s fascist regime, despite Cassadó’s continuing friendship and collaboration with perhaps the most vocal of Italy’s anti-fascist composers, Luigi Dallapicolla. The rift between teacher and protégé was finally reconciled during the mid 1950s through the efforts of a mutual friend, the British violinist Yehudi Menuhin, but Cassadó’s career never fully recovered.  

The 1926 Suite for Solo Cello remains one of Cassadó’s best known works. Its modal inflections and folk-dance rhythms attest to the composer’s Catalan heritage, and the rhapsodic first movement acknowledges other influences, with direct references to Zoltán Kodály’s Sonata for Solo Cello, Op. 8, and Ravel’s ballet, Daphnis et Chloe.






Saturday, September 8, 2012

Promenade! Art Walk Concert, 02/06/2013 @ 6pm

Jacksonville University Chamber Strings
Dr. Marguerite Richardson, director

PLEASE NOTE THE EARLIER-THAN-USUAL START TIME!

  • Handel: Concerto Grosso in G major, opus 6, no. 1
  • Faure: Elegy (Dr. Shannon Lockwood, violoncello)
  • Mozart: Divertimento in D, K.136
  • Mascagni: Intermezzo (from Cavalleria Rusticana)
  • Mendelssohn: Sinfonia No. 2 in D[selection cancelled]
  • Szewczyk: Rebirth of Hope
  
Jacksonville University is a comprehensive, private university with more than 70 respected academic programs that attract nearly 3,000 students from all over Florida, across the nation, and around the world. Working closely with a distinguished faculty of professional performing artists and researchers, students can focus and refine their skills while deepening an appreciation for the musical arts. Music students at Jacksonville University may pursue a Bachelor of Arts (B.A.), Bachelor of Fine Arts (B.F.A.), Bachelor of Music (B.M.), Bachelor of Music Education (B.M.E.), or a Bachelor of Science (B.S.).
Violin 1
Edward Latimer          
Jonathan Lindsay      
Laytan Gornoski
Yelena Sakara

Violin 2
Breanne Wilder          
Meaghan Frick
David Reynolds
Joseph Schmidt
Viola
Jacob Campbell
Antoni DiGeorgio
Cello
Joseph Engel
David Greene
Grace Han
Bass
Peter Mosely
Cody Wheaton
Keyboard
Dr. Scott Watkins, guest keyboardist

Dr. Shannon Lockwood (DMA, University of Cincinnati) is Adjunct Applied Instructor (violoncello) at JU. She is an avid performer as soloist, chamber musician, and orchestral musician throughout the United States, England, and France, and was the principal cellist of the Richmond Indiana Symphony Orchestra.



Dr. Marguerite Richardson joined the faculty of Jacksonville University in 2007, where she is Assistant Professor of Strings and Music Director of the JU Orchestra, and, prior to her appointment at JU, Dr. Richardson founded the string program at the University of North Florida. She has been a member of the Jacksonville Symphony Orchestra since 1990, and is Associate Conductor of the Jacksonville Symphony Youth Orchestra. Dr. Richardson regularly performs both as a soloist and chamber musician, including recitals this past summer in China, where she was a Visiting Foreign Scholar and Visiting Professor.


Along with J.S. Bach (1685-1750) and Antonio Vivaldi (1678-1741), George Frideric Handel (1685-1759) is widely regarded as among the most significant composers of the Baroque era, and certainly his Messiah is one of the most-performed works of all time.  Handel was born in Germany but became a British subject in 1727, and it was from his naturalized home in London that he gained fame as a composer, primarily for his operas and oratorios. Among his instrumental works, both Water Music and Music for the Royal Fireworks remain great favorites. The 18 concerti grossi that comprise his Opus 3 and Opus 6 are not as well-known, but they nonetheless provide some of the finest examples of the genre. All of Handel's 12 Concerti Grossi, Op. 6 were composed in less than a month in the fall of 1739, and primarily were written to serve as interludes during performances of his oratorios and other choral works.   

Gabriel Fauré (1845-1924) was a composer, organist, pianist and teacher, and he is widely regarded as the foremost French composer of his generation. Although Fauré greatly admired Wagner he remained relatively free of Wagner’s highly-colored influence, and instead led his own harmonic revolution by treating chords with added 7ths and 9ths as consonant and by introducing modal inflections into an essentially diatonic framework; in the process he successfully bridged the styles of Saint-Saëns (his teacher) and Ravel (his student). Among Fauré's best-known works is the hauntingly beautiful choral Requiem, and his songs and chamber music also have a devoted and well-deserved following.  Composed in 1880 for cello and piano, Fauré's Élégie, Op. 24was first performed publically in 1883 by cellist Jules Loëb (1852-1933), to whom the piece is dedicated. The piece remained so popular that Fauré was asked to create an orchestral version which was published in 1901, and first performed that same year with the legendary Pablo Casals (1876-1973) as soloist.

Austrian-born Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756–1791), unquestionably one of the greatest composers in history, began his career touring Europe as a 6-year-old piano prodigy.  From this early beginning he absorbed and mastered all the contemporary musical trends he was exposed to along the way, and by the end of his short life he left posterity with over 600 works.  Mozart basically was still a 16-year-old "apprentice" composer when he wrote the  Divertimento in D, K.136.  It is the first of the three works (K. 136-138) that are sometimes referred to as the "Salzburg Symphonies," because he was employed as court musician in Salzburg during in the winter of 1772 when they were written.  It is unclear from his manuscript whether Mozart intended them for string quartet or string orchestra, and the title"divertimento" was added by a hand other than Mozart's.  Unlike the composer's mature Divertimentos and Serenades for winds and strings which typically have at least 6 movements, these Salzburg string-only works have just three movements. By this point in his career Mozart had already spent time in Italy, and would soon return, so it is not surprising that he seems to have patterned them after the Italian sinfonia, works typically in a fast-slow-fast, three-movement pattern.

Italian composer and conductor Pietro Mascagni (1863-1945), a classmate of Puccini at the Milan Conservatory, rocketed to international fame following the 1890 premiere of Cavalleria rusticana (Rustic Chivalry). Although he wrote more than a dozen subsequent operas, Mascagni was never able to duplicate the same level of international success he achieved with the one-act verismo opera of betrayal and revenge that assures the composer his continuing place in opera history. The orchestral Intermezzo comes just prior to the opera's climactic final scene, and it gained wide-spread exposure among non-opera goers when film director Martin Scorsese used it to open his 1980 bio-pic, Raging Bull, now widely regarded as one of the greatest films ever made.

Felix Mendelssohn (1809-1847) was a German composer, pianist, organist and conductor whose prodigious musical talents rivaled those of Mozart, and who, like Mozart, did not live to see his 40th birthday. Through the course of his career Mendelssohn became something of a superstar performer and composer, especially in Great Britain where he was a particular favorite of Queen Victoria. His musical legacy includes the well-known "Scottish" and "Italian" Symphonies, his often-performed and recorded Violin Concerto, and Elijah, which is surpassed only by Handel's Messiah in popularity among large-scale sacred oratorios. At sixteen, Mendelssohn produced his first masterwork, the Octet for Strings, Op. 20, and the following year saw the completion of the brilliant A Midsummer Night’s Dream concert overture (Op. 21) -- so, in terms of achieving his musical "maturity," Mendelssohn surpassed even Mozart.  Between the ages of 12 and 14 young Felix composed a dozen symphonies for string orchestra as student exercises, at first mimicking 18th-Century formal procedures.  Working  under the guidance of composer Carl Friedrich Zelter (1758-1832), the 12-year-old Mendelssohn wrote the first seven of his 12 Sinfonias for strings in 1821.  Like the others in this early group, Sinfonia No. 2 in D major (MWV N.2) follows a 3-movement, fast-slow-fast outline, apparently taking as a model works by J.S. Bach's son, Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach (1714-1788).  

Polish-born violinist and composer Piotr Szewczyk (b. 1977) joined the Jacksonville Symphony Orchestra in 2007. He has appeared as soloist with numerous orchestras and ensembles, and performs frequently in solo and chamber recitals, including appearances in the United States, Poland, Germany and Austria. Szewczyk's works have won a number of national and international composition prizes, including the Jacksonville Symphony Orchestra’s 2008 Fresh Ink competition, and his music has been featured on the CBS Early Show and NPR's Performance Today. The elegiac Rebirth of Hope was composed in 2005 in response to the Indian Ocean Tsunami, which, on December 26, 2004, claimed the lives of over 230,000 people in 14 countries, making it among the worst natural disasters in recorded history.
  • Rebirth of Hope (EXCERPT) on YouTube






  • Promenade! Art Walk Concert, 11/07/2012 @ 7pm


    Jacksonville University Vocal Students
    Kimberly Beasley, coordinator


    Jacksonville University is a comprehensive, private university with more than 70 respected academic programs that attract nearly 3,000 students from all over Florida, across the nation, and around the world. Working closely with a distinguished faculty of professional performing artists and researchers, students can focus and refine their skills while deepening an appreciation for the musical arts.

    Music students at Jacksonville University may pursue a Bachelor of Arts (B.A.), Bachelor of Fine Arts (B.F.A.), Bachelor of Music (B.M.), Bachelor of Music Education (B.M.E.), or a Bachelor of Science (B.S.).



    Leanna Brown – Junior, B.F.A. in Music Theatre
    Gretchen am Spinnrade / Schubert

    Jordyn Jones – Junior, B.F.A. in Music Theatre
    O Primavera / Tirindelli

    Alec Hadden – Junior, B.F.A. in Music Theatre
    They all Laughed / Gershwin
    Shouldn’t I be less in Love (I Love You, You’re Perfect, Now Change) / DiPietro and Roberts

    Michelle Csapek – Junior, B.F.A. in Music Theatre
    Amorosi miei giorni / Donaudy
    A New Life (from Jekyll and Hyde) / Wildhorn and Bricusse

    Michelle Mestas – Senior, B.F.A. in Music Theatre
    Abendempfindung an Laura / Mozart
    I Remember (Evening Primrose) / Sondheim

    Tiffany Thomas – Senior, B.M. in Voice Performance
    Rencontre (Poème d'un jour) / Faure
    I Wonder What Became of Me (St. Louis Woman) / Arlen and Mercer

    Jet Thomas – Senior, B.F.A. in Music Theatre
    Meine Rose / Schumann
    Fly, Fly Away (Catch Me if You Can) / Shaiman and Wittman

    Elyn Wolfe – Senior, B.F.A. in Music Theatre
    La Serenata / Paolo Tosti
    Now That I’ve Seen Her (Miss Saigon) / Schönberg and Boublil

    Raquel Lopez – Senior, B.F.A. in Music Theatre
    Quando ti rivedrò / Donaudy
    Trouble Man (Lost in the Stars) / Weill

    Brittany Nickell – Senior, B.M. in Voice Performance
    Porgi, Amor (Marriage of Figaro) / Mozart
    Breit' über mein Haupt / Strauss


    Kimberly Beasley, Assistant Professor of Voice, holds a Bachelor's degree in Music Theatre from the University of Colorado, a Master of Music from Valparaiso University and a Certificate of Vocal Performance from Northwestern University where she studied with Sunny Joy Langton and coached with Sherrill Milnes. Singing in all styles, she has performed with the Jacksonville Symphony Orchestra, the Northwest Festival Orchestra in Chicago, Southwest Michigan Symphony, Elmhurst Symphony, the Northwest Indiana Symphony, DuPage Opera Theatre, the New Philharmonic Orchestra, Light Opera Works, Music at Main, Friday Musicale, Jacksonville University Orchestra, and the Grant Park Symphony Chorus and the Lyric Opera of Chicago Chorus at venues such as the Times-Union Center in Jacksonville, the Star Plaza in Indiana, Chicago’s Millennium Park , and the Civic Opera House in Chicago. Roles include Solvieg, Micaëla, Dorine, Serpina, Rosina, Cinderella, Angelica, Josephine, and Ciao-ciao San in productions of Cavalleria Rusticana, Fidelio, Turandot, Peer Gynt, Into the Woods, Suor Angelica, Barber of Seville, Tartuffe, H.M.S. Pinafore, Carmen, and Madama Butterfly. She is an avid recitalist, both locally and in concerts and recitals from Chicago to Colorado. Kimberly also serves as a stage and music director for musicals and operas. She was the music director, to critical acclaim, of Last Five Years for OneTheatre in Chicago, and in 2011 she stage directed Little Women, the Musical for Jacksonville University, a production which won awards for Best Actor and Best Lighting Design from Broadway World.

    INTRODUCING THE SINGERS


    Hailing from Annapolis, Maryland, Leanna Brown is a Junior in the B.F.A. Music Theatre program at JU. She has appeared in five productions in the Swisher Theater, with favorite roles including "Nellie Forebush" in South Pacific, "Gianetta" in The Gondoliers, and "Miss Dorothy" in Thoroughly Modern Millie. She also enjoyed preparing the role of "Amy" as understudy for JU's production of Little Women. Leanna thanks her family and friends for their continuing support.

    Jordyn Jones is a Junior B.F.A. Musical Theatre major studying with Kimberly Beasley, and a member of Alpha Psi Omega and Delta Delta Delta. She has appeared in recent JU stage productions, including The Gondoliers (as "Tessa"), and in the award-winning Little Women. Other favorite roles include "Mona" (Chicago), "Philia" (A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum), "Rusty" (Footloose), "Ruth" (Seven Brides for Seven Brothers), "Jo March" (Little Women), "Daisy Mae" (Li’l Abner), and "Cinderella" (Cinderella), as well as part of the "Ensemble" in The Apple Tree.


    Alec Hadden is a Junior working toward a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in JU's Music Theatre program. Currently studying with visiting professor Jay Ivey, Alec is a graduate of Jacksonville's Episcopal High School where he sang the lead in a production of Fiddler on the Roof ("Tevye"). He has appeared in a number of JU theatrical productions, including Der Vampyr ("Lord Ruthven"), Little Women ("Mr. Laurence"), and The Apple Tree ("King Arik").


    From a young age Michelle Csapek has been immersed in the performing arts. In her native Bolivia she had the opportunity to study dance, theater and singing with with a number of notable teachers. In addition to singing with the Bolivian Choral Society, she was a guest artist for a variety of competitions and musical events ranging from cabarets to classical concerts, and her theatrical roles included "Sandy" in Grease, and "Belle" in Beauty and the Beast. Michelle has appeared in music videos and commercials, and her dance performances included ballet, jazz and modern dance styles. In the United States she attended the Florida School of the Arts (Palatka, Fla.), where she participated in numerous dance productions and earned an A.S. in Dance Entertainment. She is currently pursuing a B.F.A in Musical Theatre at JU, where she has appeared in Little Women and The Gondoliers.


    Soprano Michelle Mestas is in her Senior year at Jacksonville University. She is from the studio of Kimberly Beasley, and is completing a B.F.A. in the Music Theatre program. She appeared in JU's production of Little Women, the Musical, and in addition to singing Michelle is a host of JU108's student radio program, Radio Misfits, as well as the engineer for the station.


    Jacksonville University Senior Tiffany Thomas is a Voice Performance major, and is working with Kimberly Beasley toward a Bachelor of Music degree. Before moving to Jacksonville from North Carolina, the soprano attended Durham School of the Arts, where she was a member of the Spotlight Cabaret Singers and coached middle school students in singing and choreography. Among her stage performances, Tiffany sang the role of "Fiametta" in JU's production of Gilbert and Sullivan's The Gondoliers.


    Originally from South Florida, Jet Thomas will be graduated this spring with a B.F.A. in Music Theatre, and will pursue a performance career after graduation. This summer she performed at ABET (Atlantic Beach Experimental Theatre) in After Ashley ("Julie"), and with Players by the Sea in both Reefer Madness ("Mary Lane") and an original musical, Another Sign ("Anne"). You may have seen her in JU's productions of The Apple Tree ("Eve"), Little Women ("Amy"), and most recently, Thoroughly Modern Millie ("Millie").


    Under the guidance of Kimberly Beasley, Elyn Wolfe is pursuing a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree. Elyn moved to Jacksonville from Stony Brook, New York, and is now in her Senior year at Jacksonville University. She is pursuing her degree in Music Theatre at JU, where among other roles she sang "Beth" in Little Women, the Musical, garnering glowing reviews in the process.


    Mezzo-Soprano Belter Raquel Lopez (Junior) is originally from The Bronx, New York, and is working towards a B.F.A. in Musical Theatre. She has been in a wide variety of shows, including I Love You, Your Perfect Now Change ("Clergywoman), Little Women ("Meg"), and The Gondoliers ("The Duchess"). Raquel recorded a demo in New York to showcase the Latina "flair" reflective of her Puerto Rican heritage, and after graduation her heart is set on Broadway. In addition to studying and performing, Raquel is an active member of several organizations including the International Student Association (ISA), SNATS (Student of the National Association of Teachers of Singing), and Alpha Psi Omega.

    Soprano Brittany Nickell, originally from Ft. Lauderdale, is in her Senior year at JU and majoring in Vocal Performance under Professor Beasley's guidance. Her operatic roles have included "Emmy Perth" in Marschner's Der Vampyr, and "Vittoria" in Gilbert and Sullivan's The Gondoliers. She has been a featured soloist on tour with the JU Chamber Singers, as well as in JU's “Baroque Opera Scenes” workshop production. Brittany is an active member of Alpha Epsilon Phi sorority and Alpha Psi Omega Honors Fraternity, and is a founding member and the President of JU’s SNATS (Students of the National Association of Teachers of Singing) chapter. She does volunteer work as a music teacher to children in after school programs, and she plans to attend graduate school after completing her degree at JU.

    PROGRAM NOTES, by Edward Lein, Music Librarian

    In addition to numerous symphonies, chamber works, masses, and solo piano music, the Austrian composer Franz Schubert (1797-1828) composed over 600 songs in his short life, and he has remained unsurpassed in the ability to marry poetry with music. Even Beethoven, who apparently never met the younger composer, touted Schubert's genius when he was given some of Schubert's songs shortly before his death. Gretchen am Spinnrade ("Gretchen at the Spinning Wheel") was the first work that brought a 16-year-old Schubert to the attention of Viennese music-lovers, and it is still regarded as among the finest of all German Lieder. The text, drawn from Goethe's Faust (Part 1), relays the obsessive confusion, bordering on despair, of the still innocent Gretchen after she has become infatuated with Faust, but then is seemingly deserted by him. The motion of Schubert's piano part reflects not only the whirring of the spinning wheel, but also Gretchen's increasingly agitated emotional state.


    Pier Adolfo Tirindelli (1858-1937) was an Italian composer, violinist, conductor and teacher. In 1883 he accepted the post of professor of violin at the Conservatory of Venice, and assumed directorship of that institution from 1893 to 1895. He then moved to the United States until 1922, as a professor of violin and conducting at the Cincinnati Conservatory. Returning to his homeland, he devoted the last period of his life to composing, producing songs and instrumental works in addition to three operas. Tirindelli's Neapolitan song O Primavera (O Springtime), originally published in 1911 during his American sojourn, was dedicated to the famous Italian tenor Enrico Caruso (1873-1921).


    George Gershwin (1898-1937) wrote his first song in 1916 and his first Broadway musical in 1919, and he remained a fixture of the New York stage for 14 successive years. In 1924 he enjoyed success in applying jazz idioms to concert works, as with Rhapsody in Blue, and until the end of his life he produced larger-scale works alongside songs for musicals and films. They All Laughed is included in Shall We Dance?, the 1937 movie musical starring Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers.

    Although The Fantasticks maintains the number one spot, I Love You, You're Perfect, Now Change, by Joe DiPietro and Jimmy Roberts, is the second-longest running Off Broadway musical, amassing 5003 performances between 1996 and 2008. Described as "Seinfeld set to music," it is structured as a series of mostly independent vignettes with a multitude of different characters, but taken together the scenes depict a progression of romantic life from the first date through married life with children. In Shouldn’t I be less in Love an unnamed "Man" reflects on expectations one has after 30 years of married life.


    Don't feel too badly if you don't recognize the name of Stefano Donaudy (1879-1925)--although the Sicilian-born composer rates a place in Baker's Biographical Dictionary of Musicians (2001), there is no entry for him in the 2nd edition of New Grove Dictionary (also 2001). As a precocious "tween" Donaudy wrote Folchetto (1892), the first of his six operas. He enjoyed early successes with both his songs and operas, and he also composed a few purely instrumental pieces. But his luck ran out with his poorly-received final opera, La Fiamminga (Naples, 1922), and the disappointment at its failure (apparently coupled with declining health) caused him to abandon composing for his few remaining years. Despite the composer's relative obscurity, several of Donaudy's three dozen 36 Arie di Stile Antico ("36 Arias in Antique Style," 1918, revised 1922) have been championed from the early recorded era to the present day by many the world's foremost singers. Amorosi miei giorni ("My Amorous Days"), the 27th song in the collection, is a setting of a poem by the composer's brother, Alberto Donaudy (1880-1941), who likewise provided the texts for the majority of Stefano's songs and operas.


    Jekyll and Hyde (1990) is the best known musical by American composer Frank Wildhorn (b.1958), and at the same time it was on Broadway Wildhorn had two other shows playing just down the street: The Scarlett Pimpernel (1997) and The Civil War (1998), and these last two were nominated for Tony Awards, as was his Bonnie and Clyde (2009). Based on the Strange case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson (1850-1894), the Tony-nominated book and lyrics of the musical version are by British composer Leslie Bricusse (b.1931), whose early collaborations with fellow Brit Anthony Newly (1931-1999) gained them international fame, along with both a 1963 Tony (for Stop the World, I Want to Get Off) and Grammy (for What Kind of Fool am I)--and Bricusse has since had numerous additional nominations for his work in movies and stage musicals, and has won two Oscars®. The song A New Life is sung by "Lucy," a showgirl infatuated with the kind-hearted Dr. Jekyll, who has just sent her money to move away to safety and start her life over. Sadly, she is also being terrorized by the murderous Mr. Hyde, who has other plans for her.



    Austrian-born Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756–1791), unquestionably one of the greatest composers in history, began his career touring Europe as a 6-year-old piano prodigy, and he absorbed and mastered all the contemporary musical trends he was exposed to along the way. Mozart wrote 22 operas, including, Le nozze di Figaro (1786), Don Giovanni (1787), Cosi fan tutte (1790), and The Magic Flute (1791), as well as 40 symphonies (“No. 37” is by Michael Haydn, but with a new introduction by Mozart), 27 concertos, chamber music, sonatas, and choral pieces, numbering over 600 works all together. Abendempfindung an Laura (Laura's Evening Sentiment" (K. 523) was written in 1787, and although exactly who "Laura" represents remains a mystery, her melancholy musing provided the inspiration for what is considered Mozart's finest song for voice and piano, which in turn provided Schubert a worthy example of what the genre might aspire to.

    Described by The New York Times as the greatest artist working in musical theater, Stephen Sondheim (b.1930) certainly has won enough awards to help back up the statement, including eight Tony awards (more than any other individual), an Academy Award, multiple Grammys, and the Pulitzer Prize. His astounding output includes A Little Night Music, Into the Woods, Sunday in the Park with George, and Sweeney Todd, to name but a few. I Remember is one of four songs from the 1966 television musical Evening Primrose, and the hour-long production was written especially for a series called ABC Stage 67.


    Gabriel Fauré (1845-1924) was a composer, organist, pianist and teacher, and he is widely regarded as the foremost French composer of his generation. Although Fauré greatly admired Wagner he remained relatively free of Wagner’s highly-colored influence, and instead led his own harmonic revolution by treating chords with added 7ths and 9ths as consonant and by introducing modal inflections into an essentially diatonic framework; in the process he successfully bridged the styles of Saint-Saëns (his teacher) and Ravel (his student). Fauré’s compositions are distinguished by perfectly crafted melodies floating over rich and radiant backgrounds. Among his best-known works is the hauntingly beautiful choral Requiem, and his songs and chamber music have as a devoted, and well-deserved, following. Rencontre ("Encounter") is the first of the three songs that comprise Fauré’s Poème d'un jour ("Poem of a Day"), Op. 21 (1880).

    A preeminent composer of American popular song, Harold Arlen (1905-1986) began life as Hyman Arluk in Buffalo, New York, but changed his name in 1928, three years after he moved to The Big Apple to play piano for vaudeville acts. He scored his first big hit as a songwriter in 1929 with Get Happy, and didn’t stop until his catalog had over 400 entries and many standards, including Stormy Weather, That Old Black Magic, The Man That Got Away, and, of course, Over the Rainbow. I Wonder What Became of Me is from the 1946 musical St. Louis Woman, which Arlen co-wrote with Johnny Mercer (1909-1976). The show, based an the novel God Sends Sunday, by noted Harlem Renaissance writer Arna Bontemps 1902-1973), was criticized for the stereotypical portrayal of its characters, but the songs are regarded as among the very finest that the songwriting pair produced.

    The hopes of the great German Romantic composer Robert Schumann (1810-1856) to become a concert pianist were dashed in his early twenties when he permanently damaged his hand, so he redirected his energies to both composing and music criticism. From childhood he was torn between literature and music, but he managed to combine these two loves even in some of his purely instrumental music by using poetry and dramatic narrative to color and direct the musical discourse. Although his taste in song texts sometimes seems questionable by today’s standards, Schumann’s keen literary sensibilities nonetheless made him one of history’s greatest songwriters, and his finest Lieder rival those of Schubert. Meine Rose ("My Own Rose") is the second song incuded in 6 Gedichte von N. Lenau und Requiem, Op.90 (1850). Schumann added the Requiem to the six poems by Lenau because, while composing the songs, Schumann was under the impression that the poet was deceased. He happily learned that Lenau was still alive, but by a strange turn of events, on the very day that the songs were first performed Schumann received word the Lenau had, in fact, just died.

    Composer and arranger Marc Shaiman (b.1959) has won Tony, Grammy, and Emmy awards, has been nominated for the Oscar®, and has appeared in film, television, and theatrical productions as a performer. He is perhaps best known for the musical Hairspray (2002), which he co-wrote with lyricist, writer and director Scott Wittman (b.1959). Among numerous other collaborations, the partners have a new musical, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory: the Musical, in the works for a 2013 production date. In 2009 they wrote the songs for Catch Me If You Can, a musical based on the 2002 Steven Spielberg film, which in turn was based on the 1980 autobiography of Frank Abagnale, Jr., an elusive con artist. Fly, Fly Away is sung by "Brenda," a nurse who has fallen in love with the rogue and swears she will never help the FBI catch him--only she is tricked into doing just that.

    In the earliest days of his career as a singer-songwriter, Italian composer Francesco Paolo Tosti (1846-1916) had a difficult time making a living, reportedly living on oranges and stale bread for weeks at a time. But his talents eventually lead him into the highest reaches of fashionable society, and he became singing master first to the Queen of Italy, and then, in 1880, to the British Royal family. By the mid-1880s he had become the most popular songwriter in Britain, and he received a professorship at the Royal Academy of Music in 1894. Tosti became a British citizen in 1906, and was knighted by King Edward VII in 1908, but he returned to his homeland in 1913 and spent his remaining years in Rome. Although he never wrote an opera, his finely crafted melodies have been favorites of opera stars since the early years of the recorded era.

    Following the stunning success of their musical version of Les misérables (1985), composer Claude-Michel Schönberg (b.1944) and lyricist Alain Boublil (b.1941) scored another huge success with Miss Saigon (1989), in which they transform the story of Puccini's Madama Butterfly into a Vietnam War-era tragedy. Now That I’ve Seen Her is sung by "Ellen," the betrayed, but nonetheless determined, American wife of "Chris," the G.I. who fathered a child with the innocent Vietnamese girl, "Kim."

    Stefano Donaudy's Quando ti rivedrò? ("When might I see thee once again?"), is the 22nd song in 36 Arie di Stile Antico, and like the aforementioned Amorosi miei giorni is a setting of a poem by the composer's brother, Alberto Donaudy.

    German composer Kurt Weill (1900-1950) is most remembered for his works for the stage, especially The Threepenny Opera (1928), in collaboration with Bertolt Brecht (1898-1956), but he also produced a prodigious amount of art songs and concert and chamber music during the first decade of his career. Despite his popularity with the German public, Weill became a target of the Nazis during the early 1930s, and the Jewish socialist and his famous wife, the Austrian chanteuse and actress Lotte Lenya (1898-1981), were forced to flee Germany in 1933. They moved to New York City in 1935, and he eventually became an American citizen. Weill immersed himself in American popular song and Broadway musicals hoping to develop a style that synthesized European opera with American musical theater, perhaps building on Gershwin's Porgy and Bess (1935), but definitely setting the groundwork for future achievements, like Bernstein's West Side Story (1957) and Sondheim's Sweeney Todd (1979). Weill's efforts were officially rewarded in 1947 when Street Scene earned him the first-ever Tony Award for Best Original Score. Premiering in 1949, the year before his early death, Weill's last work for the stage was Lost in the Stars, with book and lyrics by Maxwell Anderson (1888-1959), and based on the novel Cry, the Beloved Country (1948) by Alan Paton (1903-1988). With South African apartheid as a backdrop, the sad, but ultimately hopeful tale relates the story of "Stephen Kumalo," a black Anglican priest, as he searches for his son, only finally to find him awaiting trail for murder. Before father and son are reunited, Father Stephen has a meeting with his son's pregnant girlfriend, "Irina," who relates her anxiety in Trouble Man.

    In 1786, Mozart and librettist Lorenzo da Ponte (1749-1838) began their highly successful collaboration with the comic opera, Le nozze di Figaro (“The Marriage of Figaro”), which pokes wicked fun at the aristocracy. “Figaro,” formerly a barber in Seville, is now the valet to “Count Almaviva.” Figaro is about to marry “Susanna,” the maid to the Count's wife, and both Figaro and the "Countess" are unhappy, to say the least, when the Count makes inappropriate advances toward Susanna. Eventually the bride and groom team up with the wronged Countess to outwit the old philander, but not before the Countess laments her husband's would-be infidelity in Porgi, Amor ("Grant me, O Love").

    Richard Strauss (1864-1949) was the most famous German composer of the late Romantic and early modern eras, and was also one of the period's most famous conductors. Among his best-known works are his operas, including Der Rosenkavalier and Salome; and his tone poems, including Death and Transfiguration, Till Eulenspiegel's Merry Pranks, and Also sprach Zarathustra, the opening of which is immediately identified with Stanley Kubrick's revolutionary film, 2001: A Space Odyssey. Strauss wrote songs throughout his career, including his very last work, the beautiful Vier letzte Lieder ("Four Last Songs", 1948), for soprano and orchestra. Published in 1923, Breit' über mein Haupt dein schwarzes Haar ("Upon My Head Let Fall Thy Black Hair") is the second song in Strauss's 6 Lieder aus 'Lotosblätter' ("6 Songs from 'Lotus Petals'"), Op. 19, on poems by Aldolf Friedrich Graf von Schack (1815-1894).






    Friday, September 7, 2012

    Promenade! Art Walk Concert, 12/05/2012 @ 7pm

    MinYoung Cho, violin
    Boyan Bonev, cello
    Eun Mi Lee, piano

    • MOZART: Trio in B-flat Major for Piano, Violin and Cello, K.502
    • PIAZZOLLA: The Four Seasons of Buenos Aires
    • SHOSTAKOVICH: Trio No.2 in E Minor for Piano, Violin and Cello, Op.67

    Dr. MinYoung Cho is a native of Seoul, Korea, and she has performed with many orchestras in her homeland, including the Korean-American Youth Orchestra, Gwacheon Youth Orchestra, Seoul National Symphony Orchestra, Korean Philharmonic Orchestra and Gangneung Philharmonic Orchestra. Her talent as an ensemble player remains much in demand, and she often serves as concertmaster or assistant concertmaster for many of the orchestras she plays with. She regularly performs with a number of chamber and symphony orchestras in North Florida, including Tallahassee Bach Parley, Tallahassee Symphony Orchestra, Northwest Florida Symphony Orchestra and Sinfonia Gulf Coast, as well as with the Pensacola Symphony Orchestra and Panama City Pops Orchestra. As a guest solo artist, recent recital engagements have included appearances at Chipola College (Marianna, Florida) and Valdosta State University (Valdosta, Georgia).

    As a winner of the American Fine Arts Festival earlier this year, Dr. Cho performed at Carnegie Hall (Weill Recital Hall), and also was awarded an AFAF Summer Music Courses in Europe scholarship. Other competition wins include the Korea Music Competition, the Chungbu Conservatory Competition, and the Music World Newspaper Company’s Competition. Dr. Cho received her Bachelor of Music degree from Dankook University in Korea, and both her master's and doctoral degrees from Florida State University, where she also has taught as a Graduate Assistant. Her principal teachers have included Corinne Stillwell, Karen Clarke and Daesik Kang.

    Bulgarian cellist Boyan Bonev has participated in numerous master classes and music festivals in the United States and Europe, including Florida Music Educators’ Association Conference, Varga Celebration, Seven Days of Opening Nights, March Music Days, and Varna Summer. An active performer of solo and chamber music, Dr. Bonev has taken part in concert and educational programs for the Bulgarian National Television and Radio, and is a prize winner of national and international competitions. He has been a featured soloist with the Florida Lakes Symphony Orchestra and the Stara Zagora Symphony Orchestra, and he has performed at Carnegie Hall (Weill Recital Hall). He was featured twice in Jacksonville Public Library's Intermezzo Sunday Concert Series, in March 2011 with pianist Hristo Birbochukov, and in March 2012 as a member of the Flint River Trio.

    Dr. Bonev teaches cello and double bass at the University of West Florida, and previously taught at Albany State University and Darton College. He is on the faculty of the Florida State University Summer Music Camps, and he taught cello and chamber music as a Graduate Assistant at FSU. Dr. Bonev performs with the Tallahassee, Pensacola, Mobile, Florida Lakes, and Northwest Florida Symphony Orchestras.

    In her native South Korea, Eun Mi Lee received a Bachelor of Music degree in Piano from Ewha Women’s University, and a Master of Music degree in Piano Accompanying on scholarship at Sungshin Women’s University. A passionate accompanist and teacher, she has worked with faculty artists and student performers at Baekseok Conservatory, Muyngji University, and University of Seoul, and she has been a member of Korea Collaborative Pianists Association since 2002.

    In 2007, Ms. Lee was accepted into the Master’s program in Florida State University's College of Music, working closely with Valerie M. Trujillo, the Grammy-nominated associate professor of vocal coaching and accompanying. Much in demand as a collaborative artist, Ms. Lee has pursued an interest in performing new music, and recorded Soo Jin Cho's 2-piano work, Exodus, released by the Society of Composers, Inc., in March 2010, on an album entitled Mosaic. Eun Mi Lee is currently a doctoral candidate at FSU.

    PROGRAM NOTES by Edward Lein, Music Librarian

    MOZART: Piano Trio in E Minor, K. 502 [PDF Score]
    On YouTube: 1. Allegro | 2. Larghetto | 3. Allegretto

    Austrian-born Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756–1791), unquestionably one of the greatest composers in history, began his career touring Europe as a 6-year-old piano prodigy, and he absorbed and mastered all the contemporary musical trends he was exposed to along the way. Mozart is seldom, if ever, called “The Father of the Modern Piano Trio,” but he well might be as he was the first composer to treat the violin and cello as partners independent of the keyboard.  Earlier works for the ensemble, and even those by Haydn written after Mozart had died, mostly relegated the strings as optional parts that merely doubled and reinforced the piano or harpsichord, which was still a popular household instrument among amateur players.  Mozart wrote the first three of his six piano trios in the summer of  1786, and the rest in 1788. The B-flat major Piano Trio, K. 502, was the third one composed, and it is considered his finest—most of the others were intended for amateur musicians, whereas he intended to perform this one himself. It is one of the few works for which his working sketches survive, and from them it is clear that he took the challenge of achieving the proper balance among the instruments very seriously. But, of course, being Mozart there is little wonder that he succeeded so perfectly. 

    PIAZZOLLA: Cuatro Estaciones Porteñas
    On YouTube: Primavera Porteña | Verano Porteño | Otoño Porteño | Invierno Porteño

    Ástor Piazzolla (1921-1992) pretty much single-handedly reinvented the Argentine national dance, the tango, transforming it into a new style aptly called nuevo tango ("new tango"). Born in Argentina, Piazzolla spent most of his childhood in New York City, where he was exposed to American jazz. When he returned to Argentina in 1937 he played with some of the leading dance bands, and he began studying with noted composer Alberto Ginastera (1916-1983).  In 1953 Piazzolla won a grant to study in Paris with legendary teacher Nadia Boulanger (1887-1979), who found Piazzolla's music well-crafted but  derivative. But when she finally got him to show her some of the music he wrote for his cabaret band, she convinced him to toss out his other works and concentrate on what was uniquely his own. He returned to Argentina in 1955, introducing his "new tango” which infused traditional elements with characteristics of jazz and techniques adapted from his classical studies. It is estimated that he composed over 3,000 pieces, and he recorded about 500 of them himself.  Although perhaps inspired in some way by Vivaldi’s famous concertos, the movements of Piazzolla’s Cuatro Estaciones Porteñas (The Four Seasons of Buenos Aires) originally were not conceived as a suite. The Spring movement was composed in 1965, Autumn in 1969, and Summer and Winter both in 1970, and they were originally scored for violin (viola), piano, electric guitar, double bass and bandoneón. The piano trio version is by José Bragato (b.1915), a cellist who often performed with Piazzolla.


    SHOSTAKOVICH: Piano Trio No. 2 in E minor, Op. 67
    On YouTube: I. Andante.  II. Allegro non troppo.  -
    III. Largo.  -  IV. Allegretto - beginning / - ending

    Joining Prokofiev and Khachaturian, Dmitri Shostakovich (1906-1975) is one of few composers of the former Soviet Union to sustain a large following in the West, but his career was far from “smooth sailing.” During his lifetime his music was periodically banned by Stalinist authorities, so he withheld his more personal works until after Stalin’s death in 1953. Shostakovich likewise has had detractors among many of the West’s avant-garde musicians who wielded their own brand of artistic totalitarianism, dismissing works by any who used tonal idioms to communicate directly with listeners. Ignoring the ideological tyranny on both fronts, performers and listeners have always embraced Shostakovich’s music, and he remains among the most frequently performed and recorded 20th-Century composers. Written in 1944 while the world was at war, Shostakovich’s Piano Trio No. 2, Op. 67, definitely falls into the “personal” category. Not only does it encapsulate the tragedy of war, beginning with an other-worldly fugue and ending with a klezmer-like dance of death, but it also became reflective of the composer’s immediate grief: the Trio is dedicated to the memory of Ivan Sollertinsky (1902-1944), a musicologist and close friend of the composer who died of a heart attack during the time that Shostakovich was writing the work.