Southern California Philharmonic presents Returning to the Classics at Pearson Park Amphitheatre

PROGRAM

A Letter from the President of the SoCalPhil The 2021-2022 Concert Season for the Southern California Philharmonic will be our 19th year as an ensemble, and yet, it feels like we are starting all over.

Our 18th season was challenging, to say the least, but we embraced the opportunities that technology presented to us and moved all of our activities to a virtual platform to ensure the safety of our orchestra and our audience. But to be truthful, we had mixed results.

We learned how to connect over Zoom and continued to meet weekly as an orchestra. We held virtual concerts and fundraisers, selling virtual tickets to pay those few expenses that we continued to have despite the coronavirus pandemic. We learned what worked well and we learned how to “work around” the social distancing that kept us from rehearsing and performing in-person with our extended musical family.

We missed you, our audience–the opportunity to share our love of music with the family and friends who have supported us in many ways over the years.

While we learned these new skills, SCP did not escape the harsh realities of the pandemic. This season you may notice an empty chair in our tuba section to honor Gary Haendiges, a very talented musician and wonderful person taken from us -and a number of other local ensembles-late last year, way too soon before his time. Now it is time to move forward, proceeding cautiously; we will walk before we run.

Welcome to the 2021-2022 season! We plan to stay safely outdoors and navigate these waters carefully as we find our way. As we look to rejoin our friends in the making of music, we hope you will join us on this journey to hear the fruits of our labor. Please keep track of us via our website at www.socalphil.org.

I’m also pleased to announce the SCP 2021 Young Artists Competition is now open. We are accepting applications from young musicians who aspire to perform as a soloist with the SoCalPhil in the Spring of 2022.

More information on this competition can also be found at our website.

Please join us this season. We have missed you!

Beth McCormick Southern California Philharmonic Board of Directors

Returning to the Classics Branden Muresan, Music Director & Conductor Academic Festival Overture Johannes Brahms Romance No. 2 in F Major for Violin and Orchestra featuring Concertmaster Jessica Haddy Ludwig van Beethoven Intermission Symphony No. 8 in B minor Allegro moderato Andante con moto Franz Schubert Rosamunde Overture Franz Schubert Find the Southern California Philharmonic on SoundCloud!

Jessica Haddy has been the concertmaster of the Southern California Philharmonic since 2016. She was a featured soloist for the ensemble in 2018 and 2021. In 2019, she was the contractor and concertmaster for Tustin’s Ballet Nutcracker performances at the Plummer Auditorium. Currently, she is the Principal 2nd Violinist with the Mira Costa Symphony and has performed with the Golden State Pops, Culver City Chamber Orchestra, OC Symphony, Dana Point Symphony and the Debut Symphony As a soloist, Jessica has been invited to perform at the Laguna Beach Sunset Serenades and the Hortense Miller Estate concert series. In 2020, Jessica and harpist Jillian Lopez recorded an album featuring French and Argentinian composers. In the same year, she filmed a concert at the historic Long Beach Bembridge House with pianist Anthony Lopez, performing pieces celebrating the fall season. She has been featured on Mission Viejo’s television network as a soloist and has performed solo concerts for the Mission Viejo Arts Alive concert series. The Krutz Strings company named her Brand Ambassador in 2018.

Jessica performs regularly with her husband, Ryan Haddy. Together, the violin and guitar duo founded Haddy Music. Haddy Music performs at private events and has been featured at several music festivals. Haddy Music is highly reviewed and was featured in Riviera Magazine’s Best of OC for event music. Currently Jessica and Ryan are working on composing and recording original compositions.

While working in Los Angeles, Jessica has appeared in music videos with Elton John, Sheryl Crow, Sting, Il Divo, and Randy Travis. Jessica was also the violinist for the first musical stage production of Quadrophenia written by Pete Townsend of The Who. She is currently the orchestra assistant and conductor at Corona Del Mar High School and Middle School, strings teacher at Free Society Academics, and Linden Tree Learning Enrichment. She was a featured strings instructor for the Newport Mesa district string conference in 2020. A Laguna Beach resident, Jessica teaches from her home studio as well as instructing nationally for the online music company, Tunelark. Before having her daughter Ravelle, Jessica taught violin, viola, and cello at the Journey School in Aliso Viejo and was the strings coach for the Aliso Niguel High school orchestras. Currently, Jessica has been invited to be the strings instructor at the Waldorf School in Costa Mesa!

Maestro Branden Muresan is a native of San Juan Capistrano, California, where he still resides and teaches.

He began studying violin performance at age six, under the tutelage of Merillee Walker and Noumi Fischer. After earning his AA from Saddleback College, he went on to study at San Diego State University, where he was honored to be taken as a student by Igor and Vesna Gruppman, former students of Jascha Heifetz and David Oistrakh. At SDSU, he earned his Bachelors of Music Degree in Violin Performance, and in 2000 he graduated with a Masters in Music with a major in Instrumental and Orchestral Conducting, under the instruction of Dr. Donald Barra.

Branden began performing violin professionally at age 16 and has since become a well-known orchestral violinist from Baja California to Los Angeles. His most notable performances have been with the Irish Tenors, in Mexicali BC, at Luciano Pavarotti’s last professional concert, and most recently on tour with Il Divo. Currently he is concertmaster for the Long Beach Ballet Orchestra.

Professor Muresan began teaching private violin at age 18, and many of those students have grown and pursued advanced music degrees at such prestigious colleges such as Longy Conservatory of Music, CalArts, UCSD, USD, UCLB, & University of Utah . In a college setting, Professor Muresan began teaching at Grossmont College in 2001, University of San Diego in 2003, Mira Costa College in 2009, and has since been honored to be an adjunct professor at his Alma Mater Saddleback College, where he still currently teaches.

As a conductor, Maestro Muresan began with founding and developing the East San Diego County Civic Youth Orchestra program in 2003, which is still running strong. After performing in several guest conducting spots, he was contacted to build and lead a new adult orchestra program in Poway, California, as well as the Four Seasons Youth Orchestra in Newport Beach. He also was interim conductor for the Saddleback College Orchestra during the 2011-2012 season. In 2009, Maestro Muresan was hired to conduct the Mira Costa Symphony Orchestra, and in 2012 he won the opportunity to conduct the Southern California Philharmonic Orchestra.

These orchestras are thriving and growing under the direction and care of Maestro Muresan.

Find the Southern California Philharmonic on SoundCloud!

Academic Festival Overture, Johannes Brahms

The Academic Festival Overture, Op. 80 made its debut on January 4, 1881 when Brahms received his honorary doctorate of music from the University of Breslau. It was expected by the university that Brahms would compose a new piece for what was sure to be a ceremonious occasion. However, what Brahms had written puzzled the personages of the university, as it connoted a much less scholarly, and academic experience than what was expected. Instead, the work’s connotation was perhaps more concerned with what university students requested money for in letters written to their parents: beer. In the overture, Brahms included nearly half a dozen popular songs of the time, four of which were beer-hall songs that were popular among German college students. The trumpets announce the first recognizable German song, “We Have Built a Stately House” followed by the strings, who enter with the melody of “Father of Our Country.” The next piece is declared in the bassoons: “What Comes from Afar?” connoting first year initiation at the university. Finally, the full orchestra plays the last tune of the four: “Let Us Rejoice, Therefore.” The first of the four songs was the theme song of a student group that advocated for the unification of many independent German territories. Perhaps this is the most controversial aspect of the piece, as it caused the overture’s Vienna premiere to be delayed due to the fact that the government banned the song. Furthermore, Viennese police feared uproar among students due to its affiliation with proGerman unification ideals. Although the Academic Festival Overture exposes Brahms’ wit and a rather facetious side to one of the greatest living composers of the time, it cannot be denied that the fervor and Gestalt of German music is present throughout this overture.

Program notes by Nicholas Limina

Romance No. 2 in F Major for Violin and Orchestra, Ludwig van Beethoven

Beethoven wrote two romances for violin and orchestra. Both pieces are of great lyrical beauty and gentler and more reflective than many of his more famous compositions. The second romance was in fact the first of the two to be composed. It is thought that Beethoven intended it to be used as the slow movement of a violin concerto, of which the outer movements were never completed, or have been lost. The first performance took place in November 1798, and it was finally published in 1805. Beethoven uses the rondo form (ABACA coda) for the work. The recurring “rondo” section is made up of a theme performed first by the soloist, and then echoed by the orchestra. A dotted-rhythm figure closes each appearance like a punctuation mark. The first episode retains the gently lyric character, and the second episode is more dramatic using the minor mode. The simplicity and beauty of the romance has an enduring appeal and it remains a highly popular concert work.

Program notes by the Portobello Orchestra

Symphony No. 8 in B Minor, “Unfinished”, Franz Schubert

Schubert’s Symphony No. 8, “Unfinished,” has a complex history. Written late in 1822, the work did not come to light until the 1860s, when it was discovered in the study of Schubert’s friend and fellow composer, Anselm Hüttenbrenner. The manuscript contained two fully scored movements and sketches for a third. The two complete movements (plus a final movement from another one of Schubert’s works) were premiered in 1865, nearly 40 years after Schubert’s death. In the ensuing decades, the practice of adding another movement to the work stopped; it became clear that the two movements of this piece stand-alone very well. But why did he write just two movements? He lived for another six years after the work was begun. He certainly had time to finish the work, had he chosen to. Some have thought that Schubert’s physical health was to blame. The composer had contracted syphilis and this illness contributed to depression as well. Perhaps the work had too many unpleasant associations for him. Schubert may have also been dealing with a crisis of confidence. Orchestral music was a realm in which Schubert felt self-critical, and the growing skill and assurance evidenced by the symphonic works of his contemporary, Beethoven, must have felt insurmountable.The work has two movements, the first marked Allegro moderato, and the second, Andante con moto. The opening of the Allegro moderato is dark, with a theme in the unusual key of B minor (the key was not often used for symphonies at the time) played by the oboe and clarinet. The secondary melody is a well-known tune played by the cellos. There is a warmth and beauty in this section of the movement that reflects Schubert’s talent for melody. The dramatic turns throughout the movement allow Schubert to explore light and dark, gravity and playfulness. Schubert provides contrast in the second movement with a slightly slower tempo and bright major tonality. At this point, the clarinet presents a solo that again highlights Schubert’s ability to write beautiful melodic lines. There is an artful delicacy in Schubert’s textures and harmonies.Who knows what might have been if Schubert had completed the work as he had originally envisioned? he two completed movements are more than enough to show that Schubert’s considerable gifts translated brilliantly to the symphonic form.

Program notes by LACO

Rosamunde Overture, Franz Schubert When Schubert was inspired, music took shape in his mind faster than his pen could move across paper. And in his incidental music to the Romantic drama Rosamunde, Princess of Cypress he was often inspired. He began composing on November 30, 1823, and finished on December 18, 1823, two days before the premiere. Not much time was left to rehearse either the music or the production's two ballets, and no time at all to compose an overture. In fact, Schubert never did compose an overture. In fact Schubert never did compose an overture to Rosamunde. Instead, he used an overture already composed for an earlier work. One of Schubert's close friends, the famous Romantic painter Moritz von Schwind, describing the Rosamunde premiere to a mutual friend, wrote that the Overture was taken from Schubert's opera, Alfonso and Estrella. But Schwind's comments on the music do not fit the Overture to Alfonso and Estrella. On the other hand, they do fit Schubert's Overture to an earlier "magic play" (Zauberstuck) called The Magic Harp (Die Zauberharte). Add to this the fact that the Zauberharte Overture was published (in a four-hand piano version) shortly before Schubert's death as the Overture to Rosamunde, and the conclusion seems almost inescapable. It is the Zauberharte Overture that is customarily performed today under the title of Overture to Rosamunde.

The drama Rosamunde. Princess of Cypress survived for exactly two performances. Even though Schubert's music had been singled out by the Viennese press for high praise, it fell into obscurity along with the play and was not brought to light again in its entirety until 1867, when Sir George Grove, of dictionary fame, and his friend Sir Artur Sullivan made a joint expedition to Vienna for the purpose of unearthing Schubert's still-neglected manuscripts. The two men were successful beyond their wildest dreams, and in the booty they brought back to London were parts of Schubert's Rosamunde music, which was performed, in London, for the first time since the Viennese production of the drama.

Program notes by Edward Downes

Returning to the Classics Branden Muresan, Music Director & Conductor Academic Festival Overture Johannes Brahms Romance No. 2 in F Major for Violin and Orchestra featuring Concertmaster Jessica Haddy Ludwig van Beethoven

Intermission Symphony No. 8 in B minor Allegro moderato Andante con moto Franz Schubert Rosamunde Overture Franz Schubert

Southern California Philharmonic Personnel First Violin

Jessica Haddy *** Simeon Brown** Karen Harms** Terry Blalock Goran Ivanov Mary Myers Ken Parks Kim Stephens-Doll Jim Eastmond Albert Einstein Wu

Second Violin

Juanita Jackson * Ana Varela** Marjorie Criddle Terri Garza Gina Jacobs Richard Kenyon Dan Louie Beth McCormick Matt Miamidiam Susan Teitelbaum

Flute Betty Whyte * Randy Smith

Oboe Ann Ludwig * Lisa Chattler

Bassoon John York* Theresa Harvey

Clarinet Daryl Golden* Matthew Caffrey

Trumpet

Viola

Timothy Shevlin* Matt LaBelle

Michael Cleary* Joi Ciarletta ** Roger Johnston Jacqueline Su Jan Larson

Horn Tod Beckett-Frank* Dan Tyler* Roger Gottfried Kathy Lowe

Cello

Trombone

Chris McCarthy* W. Peter Harvey ** Catherine Croisette Vivien Ide Nancy Korb Martine Korach Pauline Merry Jessica Ngo

James Winchell* Craig Chorbagian John Lowe

Bass Christopher Sterling David Blackington Brian Slack

Tuba Kevin Perez

Percussion Greg Ozment* Keith Buerger Shane Stever

***Concert Master *Principal **Asst Principal ^Member SCP Brass Quintet

This concert is dedicated in loving memory to SoCalPhil musician Gary Haendiges.

Gary, SoCalPhil will dearly miss you and your Tuba.

Rest in Peace, Friend.

Special thanks to the City of Anaheim for inviting SoCalPhil to perform in the Pearson Park Amphitheatre!

THANK YOU TO OUR SPONSORS