November 8, 2015

JPL Program Calendar

JU Piano Trio (faculty artists)

Dr. Marguerite Richardson, violin
Dr. Shannon Lockwood, Cello
Dr. Scott Watkins, Piano

PROGRAM SELECTIONS
BEETHOVEN: Piano Trio No. 2 in G Major, Op. 1, No. 2
LEIN: Sad Minuet in Olden Style
MENDELSSOHN: Piano Trio No. 1 in D minor, Op. 49

CLICK HERE to view the PROGRAM GUIDE (PDF)

A member of the Jacksonville Symphony Orchestra since 1990, violinist Marguerite Richardson began her violin studies at the age of four. She holds a Bachelor of Music degree from the Cleveland Institute of Music, a Master of Music degree from the University of South Carolina, and the Doctor of Music degree from The Florida State University. Dr. Richardson has performed symphonic and chamber music throughout the United States, Germany, Italy, Great Britain, Costa Rica, El Salvador and China. She has appeared as soloist with the Jacksonville Symphony Orchestra in performances of Barber’s Violin Concerto, Vivaldi’s Summer Concerto from The Four Seasons, and Vivaldi’s Concerto for Two Violins. Dr. Richardson has appeared frequently as recitalist and chamber musician locally, including with the St. Augustine Music Festival, the Chamber Music Society of Good Shepherd, and Friday Musicale. In addition to her extensive performance schedule, Dr. Richardson began and developed the string program at the University of North Florida (1995-2003), has taught with the Prelude Chamber Music Camp, and has appeared as an Associate Conductor with the Jacksonville Symphony Youth Orchestra. In 2007, Dr. Richardson joined the faculty of Jacksonville University where she is Associate Professor of Strings and serves as Music Director of the Jacksonville University Orchestra. In the summers of 2012 and 2014, Dr. Richardson was a Visiting Foreign Scholar at Beifang University (Yin Chuan, Ningxia Province, China) and Visiting Professor at Ningxia Teachers University (Guyuan, Ningxia Province, China), where she presented recitals, taught master classes and gave private lessons in both violin and viola.

Having earned a Doctorate in Musical Arts degree studying with Yehuda Hanani at the University of Cincinnati, Shannon Lockwood is currently a visiting assistant professor of music at Jacksonville University and a cellist with the Jacksonville Symphony Orchestra. She began playing the cello at age twelve in the Colorado public school system, and later studied with retired Colorado Symphony cellist Fred Hoeppner. Under the tutelage of Richard Slavich, she graduated Summa cum Laude with a Bachelor of Music from the University of Denver, and won the prestigious Presser Award for academic and musical achievement. She also studied in London with Alice McVeigh and Paul Watkins under a grant from the English Speaking Union and conducted research at the Britten-Pears Library. Dr. Lockwood's broad spectrum of performance and teaching experience includes playing with the Colorado Symphony Orchestra, serving as a graduate assistant to the University of Cincinnati Orchestras, appearing as soloist with the Jacksonville University Orchestra and Wired String Ensemble, playing and coaching chamber music, and maintaining a private studio.

Scott Watkins, Associate Professor of Piano at Jacksonville University, is well known to First Coast audiences for his appearances with the Jacksonville Symphony Orchestra, his numerous solo recitals, and his frequent collaborations with many of the area's finest singers and instrumentalists. His 1985 U.S. debut was an all-Bach recital given in Chicago and broadcast live nationwide. Among his numerous solo and concerto performances in North and South America, Europe, Asia and the Caribbean, Dr. Watkins has given several recitals at New York City’s famed Carnegie Hall, most recently in October of this year. He has been heard often in the United States and Canada on National Public Radio and Television, and in South America and Europe on The Voice of America. Dr. Watkins is the recipient of numerous awards, including the John Philip Sousa Award for Outstanding American Musicians, Rotary Club of Florida's Annual Artistic Merit Award, and France's Jeunesse Musicales. In 1985, he became the youngest winner ever of The U.S. Department of State's Artistic Ambassador Award. His degrees include Bachelor of Music from the University of Cincinnati, Master of Music from University of South Carolina, and Doctor of Musical Arts from The Florida State University.

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PROGRAM NOTES by Edward Lein, Music Librarian

Transcendent German-born composer Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827) would come to represent the culmination of the Classical period and forge the way into the Romantic, but he began his career as a composer essentially imitating the styles and forms he inherited from both Joseph Haydn (1732-1809) and W.A. Mozart (1756-1791). Beethoven's indebtedness to the older masters is apparent in his Piano Trio No. 2 in G major, Op. 1, No. 2, which he likely completed in 1793, the year after he moved to Vienna and began studies with Haydn. Taking Haydn’s G Major “Gypsy” Trio as a model, Beethoven uses the distantly related key of E major for his slow movement, and like Mozart he treats all the players as equal partners rather than having the piano dominate. But Beethoven’s individuality is already in play, too. With the addition of the Scherzo, Trio No. 2 became the first piano trio with four movements rather than three. And the striking originality of Trio No. 3 was such that Haydn unsuccessfully tried convincing Beethoven to exclude it from his “Opus 1,” fearing the work would be incomprehensible to most. Though not actually Beethoven’s first works to appear in print, they were the first he deemed worthy of an “official” opus number. And despite Haydn’s warning, the 1895 first edition was so successful with the public the publisher even mentioned the trios in advertisements for Beethoven’s later works.

Florida native Edward Lein (b. 1955) holds master's degrees in Music and Library Science from The Florida State University. Early in his career he appeared as tenor soloist in recitals, oratorios and dramatic productions, and drawing on this performance experience the majority of his early compositions are vocal and choral works. Following performances of pieces by the Jacksonville Symphony (Meditation for cello, oboe and orchestra in June 2006; In the Bleak Midwinter in December 2007), his instrumental catalog has grown largely due to requests from Symphony players. His song translations are frequently published in music program guides in North America and Great Britain, ranging from student recitals to concerts by major orchestras, including Orchestre symphonique de Montréal and the Utah Symphony. He also contributes articles to Jacksonville Symphony Orchestra's Encore magazine. Sad Minuet in Olden Style (2014) is adapted from a 2011 orchestral work in memory of Edward Koehler (1948-2011), who volunteered catering services for receptions that followed Library concerts for several seasons. During the 1970s Mr. Koehler was principal flute with the Navy Band in Washington, D.C., and among his favorite performance pieces was Gluck’s Dance of the Blessed Spirits, which inspired the Sad Minuet.

Felix Mendelssohn (1809-1847) was a 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. But young Felix came from a well-to-do German family, and he, his brother and two sisters were raised in an intellectually stimulating and stable environment, protected from the childhood exploitation Mozart had endured. Mendelssohn benefited from an impressively well-rounded education, and in addition to studying the piano, the violin and composition he developed skills as a visual artist, evidenced in over 300 surviving paintings and drawings of remarkable quality. 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). Thus, in terms of achieving his musical "maturity" Mendelssohn surpassed even Mozart. Published in 1840, Mendelssohn’s Piano Trio No. 1 in D minor, Op. 49 is among his best and most popular chamber works. The demanding piano part shows the “Romantic” influence of Robert Schumann (1810-1856), who in reviewing the trio dubbed Mendelssohn "the Mozart of the nineteenth century, the most illuminating of musicians."

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Intermezzo : Sunday, March 8 @ 3pm

Marguerite Richardson, violin 
Scott Watkins, piano 
JU Faculty Arists

Under Construction - Please check back!

BEETHOVEN: Violin Sonata No. 4 in A minor, op. 23
        1. Presto 
        2. Andante scherzoso, più allegretto 
        3. Allegro molto

BRAHMS: Violin Sonata No. 1 in G Major, op. 78 ("Rain Sonata")
        1. Vivace ma non troppo 
        2. Adagio 
        3. Allegro molto moderato
                                                -BRIEF INTERMISSION-

DVOŘÁK: Sonatina in G Major, op. 100
        1. Allegro risoluto 
        2.  Larghetto
        3. Molto vivace 
        4. Allegro

A member of the Jacksonville Symphony Orchestra since 1990, violinist Marguerite Richardson began her violin studies at the age of four. She holds a Bachelor of Music degree from the Cleveland Institute of Music, a Master of Music degree from the University of South Carolina, and the Doctor of Music degree from The Florida State University. Dr. Richardson has performed symphonic and chamber music throughout the United States, Germany, Italy, Great Britain, Costa Rica, El Salvador, and China. She has appeared as soloist with the Jacksonville Symphony Orchestra in performances of Samuel Barber’s Violin Concerto, Vivaldi’s Summer Concerto from The Four Seasons, and Vivaldi’s Concerto for Two Violins. Dr. Richardson has appeared as recitalist and chamber musician in several venues in the north Florida area, including the St. Augustine Music Festival, the Chamber Music Society of Good Shepherd, and the Friday Musicale. In addition to her extensive performance schedule, Dr. Richardson began and developed the string program at the University of North Florida (1995-2003), teaches with the Prelude Chamber Music Camp, and appears as an Associate Conductor with the Jacksonville Symphony Youth Orchestra. In 2007, Dr. Richardson joined the faculty of Jacksonville University, where she is Assistant Professor of Strings and serves as Music Director of the Jacksonville University Orchestra.  In the summer of 2012, Dr. Richardson was Visiting Foreign Scholar at Beifang University (Yin Chuan, Ningxia Province, China) and Visiting Professor of Ningxia Teachers University (Guyuan, Ningxia Province, China). Dr. Richardson taught master classes and presented two recitals during her visit.

Scott Watkins, Assistant Professor of Piano at Jacksonville University, is well known to First Coast audiences for his appearances with the Jacksonville Symphony Orchestra, his numerous solo recitals, and his frequent collaborations with many of the areas finest singers and instrumentalists. His 1985 U.S. debut, an all-Bach recital given in Chicago, was broadcast live nationwide, and has been followed by a steady flow of solo and concerto performances in North and South America, Europe and the Caribbean. He has been heard often in the United States and Canada on National Public Radio and Television, and in South America and Europe on The Voice of America. Dr. Watkins is the recipient of numerous awards, including the John Philip Sousa Award for Outstanding American Musicians, Rotary Club of Florida's Annual Artistic Merit Award, and France's Jeunesse Musicales. In 1985, he became the youngest winner ever of The U.S. Department of State's Artistic Ambassador Award. His degrees include a Bachelor of Music from the University of Cincinnati, Master of Music from University of South Carolina, and a Doctor of Musical Arts from Florida State University.

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PROGRAM NOTES, by Edward Lein, Music Librarian

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The Transcendent German-born composer Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827) began his compositional career essentially imitating the styles and forms he inherited from Joseph Haydn (1732-1809) and W.A Mozart (1756-1791), but during his "middle" period (ca. 1803-1815) Beethoven expanded and personalized this inheritance, creating works that have come to represent the culmination of the Classical style in much the same way that the works of J.S. Bach (1685-1750) represent the culmination of the Baroque. During Beethoven's "late" period (ca. 1815-1827), he discovered new paths toward still more personal, even intimate, musical expression, and, despite the gradual and eventually total degeneration of his hearing, he forged the way beyond the Classical tradition into the Romantic.

Beethoven began work on both his 4th and 5th violin sonatas in the summer of 1800, while he also worked on his Symphony No. 2, Op. 21 and the ballet, The Creatures of Prometheus, Op. 43. The two violin sonatas were intended as contrasting companion pieces and initially were grouped together as the composer’s “Opus 23.” But the violin part of the brightly lyrical Sonata No. 5 in F major (now known as the “Spring” Sonata) mistakenly was printed using an oblong format rather than the tall format used for the darkly dramatic Sonata No. 4. This made it impossible to bind the two sonatas together, and it was cheaper to assign them separate opus numbers rather than re-engraving them. Thus, the fifth sonata became “Opus 24,” while the fourth kept the original work number.

Although Beethoven’s Sonata No. 4 dates from his “early” period, contemporary critics were already making note of the composer’s originality, even when they didn’t quite understand his innovations. The key of A-minor was a rare choice for chamber music compositions, made even more unusual by Beethoven’s retention of the minor mode for the first movement’s “second subject,” which is introduced in E-minor rather than in the “expected” relative major key centered on C. And although Beethoven retains the 3-movement outline favored by his mentors rather than using the 4-movement scheme with an added scherzo movement that he later seemed to prefer (and which he uses in the “Spring” Sonata No. 5), he nonetheless interjects the jesting spirit of a scherzo into the slower-paced middle movement.

SCORE (pdf): Beethoven Sonata No. 4, Op. 23

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At a time when it was fashionable to write programmatic music that illustrated specific scenes, poems or stories, the great German composer Johannes Brahms (1833-1897) was recognized by his admirers as “Beethoven’s true heir” (Grove Concise Dictionary of Music) by demonstrating that established abstract formal procedures could be used to organize musical discourse without sacrificing the passion and deeply individualistic expression that defines 19th-Century Romantic music. Thus, Brahms joined Bach and Beethoven as one of the great “Three B’s” of classical music.

For many of us, summer vacations might provide a good time to "vegetate," in the sense of "idly lulling about." But for Brahms sunny rural retreats sparked his musical inspiration to "bloom and grow" into some of his most ingratiating works, including his three violin sonatas. Sonata for Violin and Piano No. 1 in G Major, op. 78 was written in response to Italian sojourns during the summers of 1878 and 1879. Among his most ingratiating works, it has been nicknamed the "Rain" Sonata because Brahms used thematic material drawn from his Regenlied ("Rain Song").

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Antonín Dvořák (1841-1904) is an immensely popular Czech composer who fused melodic and rhythmic elements of Bohemian folk music with classical symphonic forms. As his international reputation flourished, Dvořák was invited to New York City to become director of the National Conservatory of Music from 1892 to 1895. He used the opportunity to familiarize himself with indigenous American music, especially African-American work songs and Spirituals and melodies and drum rhythms of Native Americans. Dvořák wrote several newspaper articles promoting the idea that these could support a uniquely American style of concert music. He put his theory to the test in his most famous work, the New World Symphony, op. 95, as well as in the "American" String Quartet, op. 96 and "American" String Quintet, op. 97, all composed in 1893.

Completed that same year, Dvořák wanted his "opus 100" landmark to have personal significance, so he wrote it for his children, and his daughter Ottilie and son Toník premiered the work in a private performance in their home. Although the Sonatina, op. 100 lacks the "American" nickname it is infused with similar New World characteristics, such a syncopated dance rhythms and tunes derived from the pentatonic scale (like you get when you play only the black keys of the piano) and with repeated notes said to be reminiscent of Native tom toms. Neatly laid out in the tidy, four-movement "sonata" structure that Beethoven had popularized, it has become Dvořák's most popular work for violin and piano.

When presenting the work to his publisher, Dvořák commented that it is "intended for young people (dedicated to my children) but grown-ups, too, let them get what enjoyment they can out of it." Having no doubt that grown-ups would indeed enjoy it, the publisher (Simrock) also issued the second-movement Larghetto separately (without the composer's permission) as "Indian Canzonetta." Called "Indian Lullaby" by Fritz Kreisler and also performed as "Indian Lament," it's said that Dvořák jotted the main tune on his shirt sleeve while visiting Minnehaha Falls in Minnesota.

SCORE (pdf): Dvořák: Sonatina, op. 100

Emergence : Tuesday, February 3 @ 7pm

Jacksonville University Chamber Ensembles

Dr. Marguerite Richardson, faculty coordinator

W. A. Mozart (1756-1791)
      Piano Quartet No. 1in G minor, K. 478: I. Allegro
Yelena Sakara, violin, Ian Rodgers, viola, Brendan Kohler, violoncello & Jackson Merrill, piano
Dr. Shannon Lockwood, faculty coach 


Ervin Monroe
      Brian Boru's March (Traditional Irish Tune)
Ernesto Lecuona
      Malaguena (arr. by Ann Cameron Pearce)
JU Flute Ensemble
Evan Brown, Paige Dyjack, Anne McKennon, Kimberly Trumbull, Delisa Youngblood & Les Roettges
Les Roettges, faculty coach

Modest Mussorgsky (1839-1881)
      The Old Castle  (From Pictures at an Exhibition, arr. By Rik Pfenninger)
Bob Mintzer (b. 1953)
      Swingin' (from Three Pieces for Saxophone Quartet)
JU Saxophone Quartet
Joshua Gaudino, alto saxophone, Sarah Lee, alto and soprano saxophone, Daniel Powell, tenor saxophone & Ian Vargas, baritone saxophone
Prof. John Ricci, faculty coach

Eric Ewazen (b. 1954)
      Colchester Fantasy: III. The Dragoon - IV. The Red Lion
JU Honors Brass Quintet
Triston Hanson, Ben Tino,Trumpets, Michael Ryan, Horn, Erik Blomgren, Trombone & Cody Wheaton, Tuba
Prof. Christopher Creswell, faculty coach

Antonin Dvorak (1841-1904)
      String Quintet No. 2 in G major, op. 77: I. Allegro con fuoco - II. Scherzo (Allegro vivace)
JU Honors String Quintet
Edward Latimer, Joseph Schmidt, violins, Mamie Lue Small, viola & Tim Stephen, violoncello; Anna Thompson, string bass
Dr. Marguerite Richardson, faculty coach

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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.).

The Chamber Music Program at Jacksonville University includes a wide variety of players and instrumental combinations. Each student group is coached on a weekly basis by a faculty member, in addition to student-run rehearsals during the week. The Division of Music presents three chamber recitals during the course of the academic year featuring these groups. Among the chamber groups are three Honors Ensembles (String Quartet, Woodwind Quintet and Brass Quintet), which provide the students selected to participate in them with full-tuition scholarships.

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 Jacksonville University Symphony Orchestra

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ABOUT THE FACULTY COACHES

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Dr. Shannon Lockwood (B.M. Summa cum laude, U. of Denver; M.M. and D.M.A., University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music) is a member of the Jacksonville Symphony Orchestra and an Adjunct Applied Instructor (violoncello) at JU. Formerly principal cellist of the Richmond Indiana Symphony Orchestra, Dr. Lockwood is an avid performer as soloist, chamber musician, and orchestral musician throughout the United States, England and France.

Ohio native Les Roettges (B.M., New England Conservatory; M.M., Juilliard) has been principal flute for the Jacksonville Symphony Orchestra since 1986 and for the Eastern Music Festival since 2002. He also appears on PBS as a member of Gerard Schwarz’s Emmy-winning All-Star Orchestra project. Among numerous appearances around the country, Les has performed locally for the Amelia Island Chamber Festival and the Saint Augustine Festival, and with the San Marco Chamber Music Society.

JU's Director of Jazz Studies and Artist in Residence John Ricci (B.M., U. of Tennessee at Knoxville; M.M., FSU) has been a performer, jazz educator, composer and clinician in the North Florida area for over eleven years. Among his many awards he received a Downbeat Magazine award in 1995, and won the jazz song category of the 8th Annual Independent Music Awards in 2009. John has performed with a myriad of top recording artists and as soloist with the Jacksonville Symphony Pops Orchestra. Festival appearances have included the Jacksonville Jazz Festival, the Savannah Jazz Festival and the Knoxville Jazz Festival, and he and his quartet were invited to headline the Inaugural Jacksonville Jazz Series.

Christopher Creswell (B.M. in Trombone Performance, UNF; M.M. in Jazz Studies, Manhattan School of Music) has been Artist in Residence and Director of Athletic Bands at Jacksonville University since 2012. Chris has performed and recorded with many of today’s top pop and jazz artists, including Mariah Carey, John Pizzarelli, Will Smith and Arturo Sandovale, and remains active as a trombonist in the Jacksonville music scene performing at festivals, corporate events, and with various jazz and chamber ensembles. He also has composed numerous original compositions and arrangements for jazz ensemble, including a commission for the 2008 Jacksonville Jazz Festival.

Dr. Marguerite Richardson (B.M., Cleveland Institute of Music; M.M. U. of South Carolina; D.M., FSU) 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 in China as a Visiting Foreign Scholar and Visiting Professor.

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PROGRAM NOTES by Edward Lein, Music Librarian

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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. Written in 1785, Mozart’s Piano Quartet No. 1, KV 478, is the earliest masterpiece for a surprisingly rare performance ensemble combining piano with string trio—Haydn wrote nothing for piano quartet and Beethoven never returned to the medium after three very early Piano Quartets, WoO 36 (coincidentally also written in 1785 when Beethoven was only 14). Mozart was originally commissioned to write a set of three quartets suitable for amateur musicians, but the publisher canceled the order for the last two quartets because the first one was too difficult for amateurs, and he feared the new quartets would be unlikely to return a profit. Nonetheless, this Quartet is one of Mozart’s finest creations, and the great Czech Romantic Nationalist composer Antonín Dvořák (1841-1904) borrowed the opening theme for the finale of his String Quintet, Op. 1. Always strapped for cash, Mozart luckily got to keep the advance payment from the commission, but even with the commission canceled Mozart found the instrumentation artistically rewarding, enough so that he returned to it 9 months later, producing his Piano Quartet No. 2, KV 493.

Ervin Monroe was principal flute of the Detroit Symphony Orchestra for over 40 years, and has been heard on more symphonic radio broadcasts than any other American principal flutist. He has numerous solo and chamber music recordings, and has performed with such renowned artists as the late Jean-Pierre Rampal. Formerly president of the National Flute Association, Monroe founded The Flutist Quarterly and was the flute professor at Wayne State University for more than three decades; he also has served as musical director of several orchestras in Michigan. Among Monroe's numerous published arrangements and original compositions, his Brian Boru's March is based on a catchy Celtic tune named for the medieval Irish King who founded the O'Brien dynasty.

With such lasting hits as Andalucia and Siboney, Ernesto Lecuona (1895-1963) is perhaps the most famous Cuban composer and pianist of the 20th Century, and his influence among Latin American composers has been compared with George Gershwin's in the U.S.  Many of his 600+ compositions were written for theatrical and film productions, and his Always in My Heart was nominated for an Oscar for Best Song in 1942 (losing to Irving Berlin's White Christmas). Originally composed as part of Suite Andalucia for solo piano in 1924, Malagueña is likely Lecuona's most famous composition, with recordings and performances by innumerable jazz and pop artists, as well as marching bands and drum corps.  As a performer, Ann Cameron Pierce (b. 1949) specializes in contrabass flute. Like many of her 79 flute choir arrangements and compositions, Pierce's 2012 arrangement of Malagueña received special recognition from the National Flute Association’s Newly Published Music Competition.

Modest Mussorgsky (1839-1881) was among "The Five" leading composers of the Russian Romantic Nationalist movement of the late 19th Century. Along with Borodin, Rimsky-Korsakov, César Cui, and their mentor Mily Balakirev, this "Mighty Handful" formed a group of young composers who strove to create forms and melodies born of Russian folk music rather than Germanic symphonic traditions. In addition to Boris Godunov (1874), the quintessential Russian opera, and the tone poem Night on Bald Mountain (1867-80, edited and orchestrated by Rimsky-Korsakov in 1886), Mussorgsky is most remembered for his Pictures at an Exhibition (1874). Originally for piano solo, Ravel's famous orchestral version of the suite became an instant classic in 1922, and his version of The Old Castle caused quite a stir when he assigned the principal melody to saxophone, previously considered almost exclusively as a jazz instrument. Rik Pfenninger, a Professor of Music at Plymouth State University (New Hampshire) specializing in jazz studies and music technology,  goes a step further in his 1998 arrangement, eliminating the need for either piano or orchestra!

Equally active as composer, arranger and educator, saxophonist Bob Mitzer (b. 1953) tours with the Yellowjackets and his own quartet and big band, and is guest conductor and soloist with large and small bands all over the world. At the University of Southern California in Los Angeles, Mitzer teaches jazz composition, saxophone and directs the Thornton Jazz Orchestra. He also gives workshops around the world, has authored books on a variety of musical subjects, and plays on countless recordings every year. His compositions and arrangements include works for big bands, concert bands, orchestra and saxophone quartets. Swingin' is the first of Mitzer's Three Pieces For Saxophone Quartet (2006), commissioned by Frank Masseo and The New Jersey Saxophone Quartet.

Since 1980, Ohio-born Eric Ewazen (b. 1954) has been a composition professor at The Juilliard School, where he received both his M.M. and D.M.A. degrees after having received his B.M. from the Eastman School of Music. Among others, his principle teachers included Modernist composers Milton Babbitt and Joseph Schwantner, but Ewazen's post-Modern style is more closely aligned with Copland's populism and Barber's neo-romanticism. The recipient of numerous composition prizes and prestigious international commissions, Dr. Ewazen has been lecturer for the New York Philharmonic's Musical Encounters Series, Vice-President of the League of Composers--International Society of Contemporary Music, and Composer-In-Residence with the Orchestra of St. Luke's in New York City. His four-movement Colchester Fantasy dates from 1987 and has been recorded by the American Brass Quintet.

Antonín Dvořák (1841-1904) is an immensely popular Czech composer who fused melodic and rhythmic elements of Bohemian folk music with classical symphonic forms. As his international reputation flourished, Dvořák was invited to New York City to become the director of the National Conservatory of Music from 1892 to 1895, during which time he wrote the famous New World Symphony. What is now known as the String Quintet No. 2 in G major, op. 77 first appeared as Dvořák's opus 18 in March 1875, originally a five-movement work with which he won a chamber music competition in Prague. This was just two months after the 34-year old composer had won an even greater prize: a stipend for composing from the Austrian government. Johannes Brahms (1833-1897) was one of the three jurors who unanimously recommended the virtually unknown Czech for the stipend, and Brahms also helped Dvořák secure a publishing deal with Simrock, a leading music publishing house. In preparing the Quintet for its 1888 publication, among a few minor changes Dvořák removed his original second-movement, which was published separately as the Nocturne for Strings, op. 40. It's said Dvořák wasn't happy that Simrock changed the Quintet's opus number from 18 to 77 because he didn't want his early efforts confused with the works of his maturity. Even so, when it was composed Dvořák had already moved away from his early "Wagnerisms" in favor of the more folksy style that has made him perhaps the most popular of all the composers called "Romantic Nationalists," regardless of nationality.

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

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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.

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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.

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JAXCAT entries for George Frideric Handel

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.   

• YouTube Performance
• Score at IMSLP

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JAXCAT entries for Gabriel Fauré

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. 24, was 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.

• YouTube Performance (with full orchestra)
• Score at IMSLP (full orchestra)

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JAXCAT entries for Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

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.

• YouTube Performance
• Score at IMSLP

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JAXCAT entries for Pietro Mascagni

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.

• YouTube Performance (with full orchestra)
• Score at IMSLP (strings orchestra version)

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JAXCAT entries for Felix Mendelssohn

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).  

• YouTube Performance
• Score at IMSLP

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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

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11/16/2009 @ 6:15 p.m.: Jacksonville University Chamber Strings

JACKSONVILLE UNIVERSITY CHAMBER STRINGS
Marguerite Richardson, conductor

PROGRAM SELECTIONS
Antonio Vivaldi: L’Estro Armonico, Op. 3: Concerto No. 8 in A minor for two violins and strings, RV 522
Piotr Szewczyk: Summer Music
Edward Lein: Hoodoo
Jacksonville University Chamber Strings

Antonín Dvořák: Quartet in F Major, Op.96, "American" (1st Movement)
Jacksonville University Honors String Quartet (Ronald Lagarde & Mallory Bray, violins; Peter Dutilly, viola; Joseph Engel, violoncello)

Peter Warlock: Capriol Suite
Edvard Grieg: Holberg Suite, Op.40
Jacksonville University Chamber Strings

The JACKSONVILLE UNIVERSITY CHAMBER STRINGS are:

VIOLIN I Sam Lagarde,     concertmaster Mallory Bray,      associate concertmaster     Stephanie Dierickx Ashley Thorns David Reynolds Breana Mock

VIOLIN II Philip Sanders, principal     Sarah Morris Ali Villella Steffani Schmidt VIOLA Peter Dutilly, principal Jake Campbell Erick Crow

CELLO Joe Engel, principal Victor Minke Huls Christopher Davis Philip Holman BASS Max Coley, principal Ray Davis HARP Carolyne Scott

A member of the Jacksonville Symphony Orchestra since 1990, violinist Marguerite Richardson began her violin studies at the age of four. Ms. Richardson has performed symphonic and chamber music throughout the United States, Germany, Italy, Great Britain, and Central America, and performs locally with the Florida Arts Trio. Between 1995 and 2003, Ms. Richardson began and developed the String Program at the University of North Florida, where she maintained a studio of violin and viola students and conducted the UNF Orchestra.

Currently, Ms. Richardson maintains a private teaching studio and serves as Chamber Music Coordinator and Premiere Strings Orchestra conductor for the Jacksonville Symphony Youth Orchestra. At Jacksonville University she is an Assistant Professor, teaching violin and viola, directing the Orchestra and coaching string chamber ensembles.

She holds a Bachelor of Music from the Cleveland Institute of Music, a Master of Music from the University of South Carolina, and is currently completing her Doctor of Music degree from Florida State University.

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Program notes by Ed Lein, Music Librarian

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Music historians often refer to the Venetian violin virtuoso Antonio Vivaldi (1678-1741) as the composer most representative of the mature Italian Baroque style, and in addition to sonatas and sacred choral music he wrote nearly four dozen operas and over 500 concertos. Nicknamed il Prete Rosso ("The Red Priest") owing to his hair color and day job, as the composer of The Four Seasons Vivaldi wrote what have become among the most recognized violin concertos of any era, so it is perhaps surprising that after he died his music remained virtually unknown until the 20th Century. The 12 concerti grossi of Vivaldi's L'Estro Armonico ("Harmonic Inspiration"), Op. 3, were published in 1711, and Concerto No. 8, which features 2 solo violins, was later arranged for organ solo by J.S. Bach.

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Musical works by Polish composer Piotr Szewczyk (b. 1977) have won a number of international composition contests, and have been featured on NPR and at the American Symphony Orchestra League Conference in Nashville. His music has been performed by numerous orchestral and chamber ensembles, and his recently published string quintet, The Rebel, was performed live on the CBS Early Show by the Sybarite Chamber Players, and also was featured in January 2009 on NPR's Performance Today. To fulfill the commission he earned as winner of the Jacksonville Symphony Orchestra’s 2008 Fresh Ink composition competition, Mr. Szewczyk has composed First Coast Fanfare which will receive its world premiere by the JSO this coming spring. About his Summer Music (2009) the composer writes:

Summer Music for string orchestra was commissioned by Prelude Chamber Music Camp in Jacksonville. It is inspired by the joy and fun of summer days. While playful and energetic at first the piece transforms in the middle into a slow, meditative section, like the slower summer days we use for self-reflection and relaxation. Right after the slow section dissolves, the piece launches into an energetic ride that doesn’t let go to the very end, speeding up to the fiery finale. This version of the piece includes an optional harp part that adds a distinct color and flavor to the string orchestra ensemble.

A virtuoso violinist as well as a member of the Jacksonville Symphony since September 2007, Mr. Szewczyk is the creator and performer of a critically-acclaimed recital of exciting and innovative solo pieces called Violin Futura. Piotr will return to Music@Main on May 18, 2010, to present another installment of Violin Futura featuring all new works written especially for him by composers from around the globe.

More at http://www.verynewmusic.com/

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Florida native Edward Lein (b. 1955) is the Music Librarian at Jacksonville Public Library's Main Library, and holds Master's degrees in both Music and Library Science from Florida State University. As a tenor soloist he appeared in recitals, oratorios and dramatic works throughout his home state, and drawing on his performance experience the majority of his early compositions are vocal works. Following peformances of pieces by the Jacksonville Symphony, including Meditation for cello, oboe and orchestra (premiered June 2006) and In the Bleak Midwinter (premiered December 2007), his instrumental catalog has grown largely due to requests from Symphony players for new pieces, and he endeavors to imbue his instrumental works with the same singing lyricism found in his vocal music. Hoodoo, a samba, is the first movement of a four-movement suite called Un Dulcito ("A Little Sweet"), and was first performed in the summer of 2009 by students and faculty from the Prelude Chamber Music Camp. The entire suite, based on Latin American dances, entered the repertoire of the Vero Beach High School Orchestra for the first complete performances of Un Dulcito on November 7-8, 2009, under conductor Matt Stott.

Listen to Hoodoo:


More at https://leinmachine.blogspot.com/p/music-recordings.html

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Antonín Dvořák (1841-1904) is an immensely popular Czech composer who fused melodic and rhythmic elements of Bohemian folk music with classical symphonic forms. Fostered by his friend Johannes Brahms, Dvořák gained international acclaim and was invited to New York City to become the director of the National Conservatory of Music from 1892 to 1895, during which time he wrote the famous New World Symphony. It was also during this time that he composed his String Quartet No. 12 in F Major, Op.96 (1893), nicknamed the "American," and Dvořák said that it most definitely reflects his American sojourn: the second movement was influenced by the melancholy longing of African American Spirituals, the third by American birdsong, and the fourth, perhaps, by American railway travel.

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Peter Warlock (1894-1930) was born in London as Philip Arnold Heseltine and had a successful career as a music critic under his real name. But he https://leinmachine.blogspot.com/p/music-recordings.htmlis better known by the bewitching pseudonym he used for his musical compositions, and it also reflects his interest in the occult. Providing inspiration for a number of British authors including Aldous Huxley and D.H. Lawrence, at age 36 Warlock's colorful personal life ended by gas poisoning, under suspicious circumstances. Although he devoted most of his compositional efforts toward writing songs, Warlock's instrumental Capriol Suite (1926) has become his best-known work. Originally for piano duet and inspired by Orchésographie, a manual of Renaissance dances by Thoinot Arbeau (1519-1595), the composer also prepared a version for full orchestra in addition to this one for strings.

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Edvard Grieg (1843-1907) was a Norwegian composer and virtuoso pianist best known for his Piano Concerto in A minor and the incidental music to Henrik Ibsen's play Peer Gynt, and the originality of his Lyriske stykker ("Lyric Pieces") for piano solo lead some to call him "The Chopin of the North." Grieg's Holberg Suite, Op. 40 (1884) , or, Fra Holbergs tid ("From Holberg's Time"), was originally a "Suite in Olden Style" for piano solo, but it has become more popular in the composer's own version for string orchestra. The five movements were composed to commemorate the 200th birth anniversary of Danish-Norwegian playwright Ludvig Holberg (1684-1754).