05 OCTOBER 5:00 P.M.
The Orpheus Chamber Singers is the premier professional choir in North Texas, committed to seeking out, developing, and showcasing top choral artists from across North Texas and on creating programming that represents excellent choral music from around the world.
Free Admission. Childcare available for ages four and under with RSVP at fumc.com/childcare-rsvp. This performance has been graciously underwritten by the FUMC Friends of Music.
Internationally recognized violinist Annie Chalex Boyle has had a wide-ranging career as a chamber musician, soloist, orchestral player, and teacher. Her playing has been hailed by critics as “brilliant” (Kalamazoo Gazette), “eloquent and poignant” (The San Antonio Express Journal), and “has a commanding musical impersonation…in Ives’ Second String Quartet” (Los Angeles Times). Equally comfortable with classical and contemporary works, Ms. Chalex Boyle has performed numerous new works composed for her as well as commissioned for the Harrington String Quartet. Ms. Chalex Boyle has won prizes at the Seventeen Magazine/General Motors National Competition and the Irving M. Klein International String Competition. She was also the Grand Prize Winner of the Junior Division of the Fischoff Chamber Music Competition.
As a soloist, Ms. Chalex Boyle has performed recitals and been concerto soloist throughout North and South America. As first violinist of the Harrington String Quartet, the group toured extensively nationally and internationally, including a performance at Carnegie’s Weill Hall and on the roster of Mid-America Arts Alliance. The Quartet performed with guest artists including David Shifrin, Robert Levin, James Dunham, and Pepe Romero. She has been featured in three PBS television documentaries, heard frequently on NPR’s “Performance Today”, and has recorded on the Albany, Hänssler Classics, and Summit labels. An advocate of new music, she has worked with many composers including Oliver Knussen, Elliot Carter, and Stephen Hartke. Most recently, she has worked with American Composer John Corigliano on his Red Violin Concerto during his visit to West Texas with the Lubbock Symphony Orchestra under the direction of Maestro David Cho. Before moving to Lubbock, she taught violin at the Interlochen Arts Academy in Michigan, played with the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, and coached chamber music the Chicago Symphony Youth Orchestra. She also recorded for numerous television series and pop albums, along with being featured in two national television commercials for Saturn Autos in the early 1990's.
Born in Illinois, Ms. Chalex Boyle began violin in the Music for Youth Suzuki Program and continued her work with Almita and Roland Vamos. She also attended the University of Southern California studying with Robert Lipsett and worked with Robert Mann and Felix Galimir at The Juilliard School. She is a Professor of Violin at Texas Tech University, and is Concertmaster of the Lubbock Symphony and Lubbock Chamber Orchestra. Ms. Chalex Boyle performs on a 1652 Andrea Guarneri.
ANNIE CHALEX BOYLE, VIOLIN
ERIC ALLEN, LSCO CONDUCTOR
Serenade in C Major, Op. 48
I. Pezzo in forma di Sonatina
Ladder to the Moon Symphony No. 40 in G Minor
I. Night, New York
II. Looking Up
Annie Chalex Boyle, violin
I. Molto Allegro
II. Andante
III. Menuetto and Trio
IV. Allegro assai
The length of this program is approximately 1 hour and 30 minutes.
Ladder to the Moon is also the title of a 1958 painting by the American artist Georgia O'Keeffe. O’Keeffe moved from New York City to New Mexico in 1934. From 1925 to 1930 she created over 20 paintings of newly built skyscrapers. Her paintings of these buildings have been described as both realistic and abstract. Looking up was one of the perspectives that O’Keeffe was known for. This unusual perspective is best illustrated in her 1925 painting The Lawrence Tree, but it’s also a feature of her New York buildings’ paintings. It is these works of art that inspired Daugherty’s composition.
The first movement is built around the interval of a descending minor third (a musical interval where the second note is three semitones lower than the first note). The Star Spangled Banner and Hey Jude begin with a descending minor third. The solo violin, a prominent feature of the piece, uses repeated pizzicato (plucked) and arco (bowed) patterns.
After a slow introduction, the second movement speeds up and, at times, is reminiscent of Leonard Bernstein’s style. Bits of Mozart’s Jupiter Symphony are disguised throughout the movement.
Mozart wrote his final three symphonies (39-41) in an explosion of creativity in the summer of 1788. Each is a sublime masterpiece. The reason for their composition has been debated ever since. As long as his father was alive, we know the details of his life and work from the many letters the composer sent to him. But Leopold Mozart died in 1787, and thus no written record exists explaining the reason for the composition of the three symphonies.
Mozart almost always composed for an obvious reason. He had a commission; he intended the be the soloist in a new piano concerto; he planned for a work or works to be part of a special event. No such reason is apparent for the compositions of these three large scale works.
Symphony No. 40 was likely performed shortly after its composition, as two versions of it exist - one with clarinets and one without them. It seems likely that the composer added the clarinet parts after hearing the piece performed. Speculation aside, the first documented performances of the symphony took place in Vienna on April 16 and 17, 1791, and were conducted by Antonio Salieri.
The pianist and scholar Charles Rosen (in The Classical Style) called the symphony "a work of passion, violence, and grief." Earlier writers had taken a more relaxed view of the work. Rosen’s impression is that held by most modern commentators.
The symphony was a hit right from the start and is among the composer ’s most often performed works. In G minor, it is only the second of all his symphonies in a minor key. The other is Symphony No. 25, also in G minor, is known as the little G minor symphony. This earlier symphony is the masterpiece of Mozart's teenage years.
G minor seems to have had a special emotional meaning to Mozart. Some of his most emotive music is written in that key. One such example is his Piano Quartet No. 1 in G minor, K 478. Another G minor gem is his String Quintet No. 4, K 516. This one, like all Mozart’s string quintets, is scored for string quartet plus an extra viola.
Symphony No. 40, as is typical for a classical symphony, is in four movements - fast, slow, minuet, and fast. All the movements except the third are in sonata form.
The first movement (marked molto allegro - very fast) starts without the customary slow introduction going directly into its famous opening theme that conveys a sense of the dramatic contrasting with the graceful second theme.
The second movement (andante) is in 6/8 time. It is a lyrical setting in a major key (E-flat major).
The third movement (Menuetto. Allegretto - Trio) is a moderately fast dance movement. It’s a minuet in name only. It’s too intense to be a courtly dance. The trio section is simpler and mellow.
The Finale - Allegro assai opens with a series of rapidly ascending notes outlining the tonic triad illustrating what is commonly referred to as the Mannheim Rocket. This term derives from a technique developed by the court orchestra of the Elector of Mannheim. The rocket was just one of many techniques developed by the orchestra that played an important role in the development of the classical period's genres and of the classical symphony itself.
Another noteworthy feature of this movement is the modulating passage that occurs at the beginning of the development section. It contains every note in the chromatic scale except G. During this brief passage it’s hard to tell what key the music is in. It’s almost a tone row anticipating Arnold Schoenberg and Alban Berg by more than a century.
The movement is vigorous almost to the point of violence. The coda brings the symphony to a brilliant conclusion.
The symphony retained its popularity in the 19th century as interest in the classical period waned. It’s impassioned nature kept it in the repertory. Both Beethoven and Schubert copied part of it. Haydn quoted the second movement in his oratorio The Seasons as a tribute to his late friend whom he thought the greatest of all composers.
Neil Kurtzman
All the music discussed in these notes can be heard by going to www.music-opera.com. Three of O’Keeffe’s paintings are also reproduced there.
STARRING: KASEWILBANKS CHRISTYHARTIN AND
THU. DECEMBER 4, 2025 7:30 PM with the Lubbock Symphony
the civic center
Gather with friends and loved ones for Lubbock Symphony’s Home for the Holidays, showcasing familiar carols and a festive holiday sing-a-long!
This program is made possible in part through a grant from the City of Lubbock, as recommended by Civic Lubbock, inc.
FRI. october 31, 2025 7:30 PM
Eric Allen, LSCO Artistic Director
Eric Allen serves the Lubbock Symphony Orchestra as Artistic Director and Conductor of the Lubbock Symphony Chamber Orchestra. Allen has led the LSCO through stimulating performances of a variety of repertoire including symphonic masterworks, choral collaborations and collaborative solo repertoire. Allen also serves as Director of Music Ministries at First United Methodist Church in Lubbock where he conducts the storied Chancel Choir.
In addition to his responsibilities with LSO and FUMC, Allen serves as Associate Professor of Music and Associate Director of Bands at Texas Tech University, serving as conductor of the Symphonic Band, directing the Contemporary Music Ensemble, teaching conducting, and assisting with the direction of the Goin' Band from Raiderland.
Under Allen's direction, the Texas Tech Symphonic Band has performed many engaging concerts with repertoire spanning nearly two centuries. The ensemble has also performed many collaborative performances with faculty solo artists and were praised in Fanfare Magazine for their fine accompaniment work on the MSR Classics release of Andrew Stetson's solo album, Rise Above In addition, Allen served as Artistic Director and Conductor for the TTU Contemporary Music Ensemble’s album titled Shifting Direction on the Navona Records Label, The album received 5 star reviews in Fanfare Magazine in the US, and was praised Gramophone Magazine in London.
A versatile conductor, Allen also serves as music director for the Texas Chamber Winds, an ensemble of university music professors throughout Texas. The ensemble has performed featured concerts at major events including the International Clarinet Conference and the Music no Musica Festival in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
Allen holds Bachelor and Master of Music Education degrees from Florida State University and a Doctor of Musical Arts in Conducting from the University of Minnesota.
The Symphony has the ability to bring us joy and comfort, to motivate us and to help us relax.
PROUD SUPPORTER OF
Symphony Orchestra