Ladder to the moon program

ANNIE CHALEX BOYLE, VIOLIN ERIC ALLEN, LSCO CONDUCTOR

FRI. SEPTEMBER 19, 2025

7:30 PM

THE BUDDY crickets HOLLY HALL theater This program is made possible in part through a grant from the City of Lubbock, as recommended by Civic Lubbock, inc.

Vesper Concert Series

05

5:00 P.M.

OCTOBER

Free Admission.

The Orpheus Chamber Singers is the premier Childcare available professional choir in North Texas, committed for ages four and under with RSVP at to seeking out, developing, and showcasing fumc.com/childcare-rsvp. top choral artists from across North Texas and This performance has been graciously on creating programming that represents underwritten by the excellent choral music from around the world. FUMC Friends of Music.

1411 BROADWAY LUBBOCK

FIRST UNITED METHODIST CHURCH

FREE CONCERT

Annie Chalex Boyle, violin 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.

LUBBOCK SYMPHONY CHAMBER ORCHESTRA Conductor Eric Allen

The CH Foundation Endowed Conductor’s Podium

Violin 1

Linda Lin

Concertmaster

Jones-Saathoff Family Endowed Chair

Abi Rhoades

Associate Concertmaster

Flute

Kim Hudson

Principal

Crew of Columbia, STS-107 Endowed Chair

Oboe

Jordan Hastings

Principal

Lubbock Symphony Guild Endowed Chair

Angeli Mari Nicolas

Diekemper Family Foundation Endowed Chair

Clarinet

Texas Tech University School of Music Endowed Performer

Christine Polvado and John Stockdale Endowed Chair

Abreal Whitman Josenir Alves Cerqueira Jr. Radman Rasti

Aron Maczak

Principal

Guillermo Uribe Laudino

Hamed Shadad

Violin 2

Bassoon

Saikat Karmakar

Principal

Justice Phil and Carla Johnson Endowed Chair

Cassidy Forehand Adan Flores Shawn Earthman Carroll Jane Goodyear Christine Tao

Viola

Israel Mello

Principal

Mary M. Epps and Ralph E. Wallingford Endowed Chair

Jordan Stubblefield Sharon Mirll Libby Herring

Cello

Michael Newton

Sarah Boyd

Principal

Nancy and Tom Neal Endowed Chair

Jacob Prentice

Horn

Quentin Fisher

Principal

Anthony and Helen Brittin Endowed Chair

Clark Hutchinson Esteban Chavez

Percussion Lisa Rogers

Principal

Alan Shinn Endowed Chair

Principal

Personnel Manager

Danny Mar Alejos Anaya Madeline Garcia

Librarian

Mary Francis Carter Endowed Chair

Double Bass Mark Morton

Principal

Eugene and Covar Dabezies Endowed Chair

Hannah Macgillivray

Gary Hudson

Israel Mello

ANNIE CHALEX BOYLE, VIOLIN ERIC ALLEN, LSCO CONDUCTOR

Serenade in C Major, Op. 48

Peter Tchaikovsky (1840-1893)

I. Pezzo in forma di Sonatina

Ladder to the Moon

Michael Daugherty (b. 1954)

I. Night, New York II. Looking Up Annie Chalex Boyle, violin

INTERMISSION Symphony No. 40 in G Minor

W. A. Mozart (1756-1791)

I. Molto Allegro II. Andante III. Menuetto and Trio IV. Allegro assai

The length of this program is approximately 1 hour and 30 minutes.

SS Foundation

Helen Jones Foundation, Inc. THIS PROGRAM IS MADE POSSIBLE IN PART THROUGH A GRANT FROM THE CITY OF LUBBOCK, AS RECOMMENDED BY CIVIC LUBBOCK, INC.

PROGRAM NOTES Tchaikovsky Serenade in C Major, Pezzo in forma di Sonatina Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky (1840-1893) was the first Russian composer to achieve fame outside his native land. Despite the success of many of his countrymen who followed him he remains the most popular and performed of all Russian composers.

His four-movement Serenade for Strings was written in the autumn of 1880 while he was staying at his sister's country estate in Kam'ianka, Ukraine. At the same time, he was working on the 1812 Overture. He wrote to his patroness, Nadezhda von Meck: “The overture will be very noisy.

It was written without much warmth or enthusiasm; therefore it has no great artistic value. The Serenade, on the contrary, was written from an inward impulse; I felt it and venture to hope that this work is not without artistic qualities.”

Tchaikovsky’s relationship with von Meck is likely the strangest in musical history. Beginning in 1877 and continuing until 1890 she gave the composer an annual stipend of 6,000 rubles - a considerable sum at the time. The financial support was given on the stipulation that they never meet. Her support enabled Tchaikovsky to leave his post at the Moscow Conservatory to focus on his compositions. During this span, they exchanged 1200 letters filled with intimate details about Tchaikovsky's personal life, creative process, and philosophical thoughts.

When he started the sketches for what became the Serenade, he had a multi-movement work in mind, neither a string quartet nor a symphony. Working quickly, he finished a four-movement work for string orchestra. The work was first performed for a private audience at the Moscow Conservatory on December 3, 1880 .

It proved successful from the start, reaching New York by 1885. During Tchaikovsky’s American tour in 1891, which included directing the first concert at the then new Carnegie Hall, he conducted the Serenade in Baltimore.

The first movement, which opens this evening’s concert, is marked “Pezzo in forma di sonatina: Andante non troppo — Allegro moderato.” It is intended to be a tribute to Mozart, who was Tchaikovsky's favorite composer. It imitates Mozart’s classical style while still maintaining Tchaikovsky’s unique musical identity.

The movement begins with a slow, chorale-like introduction (Andante non troppo).

After the introduction, the tempo shifts to an Allegro moderato, revealing a lighter and more dance-like character. This section of the movement shows both its classical influence and Tchaikovsky's lush harmonies. The movement is in the form of a sonatina, meaning it lacks a full development section.The movement ends with a repetition of the introductory section.

Daugherty Ladder to the Moon Violin Concerto Michael Daugherty (b. 1954) is an American composer, pianist, and teacher. Daugherty is Professor of Composition at the University of Michigan School of Music Theatre & Dance. He obtained a Bachelor of Music degree in Composition from North Texas State University in 1976. He received his doctorate in composition from Yale University in 1986.

His teachers at Yale included Jacob Druckman, Earle Brown, Roger Reynolds, and Bernard Rands.

He is well known among contemporary composers of the postmodern school. His interactions with prominent late 20th century composers such as Milton Babbitt and Pierre Boulez greatly affected his compositional development. He is also interested in jazz and has worked as a jazz pianist.

Ladder to the Moon was commissioned by the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center in 2006, which was also the year of its first performance. It’s written for solo violin, wind octet, double bass, and percussion. Given the prominence of the solo violin, one could call the piece a violin concerto, but it's more accurately described as a chamber work. It consists of two movements entitled:

I. Night, New York II. Looking Up 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 Symphony No. 40 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.

Home For For The The : RING STAR BANKS

WIL RTIN E S A K STY HA CHRI D

AN

Holidays Holidays with the Lubbock Symphony

Corbin DeSpain, vocalist Rachel Kobernick, vocalist Eric Allen, conductor

THU. DECEMBER 4, 2025 7:30 PM

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.

WITH THE LUBBOCK SYMPHONY David cho, conductor

FRI. october 31, 2025

7:30 PM

THE BUDDY HOLLY HALL This program is made possible in part through a grant from the City of Lubbock, as recommended by Civic Lubbock, inc. © Universal City Studios LLC and Amblin Entertainment, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

A gift from the McDonald Family in memory of Craig McDonald

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.

PRO U D SU PPO RT ER OF

Lubbock Symphony Orchestra