Program Notes

Favorite Music for All Ages

This concert is family-oriented in a number of ways. Some of the music was written for children; some features young and young-at-heart performers, and all is just appealing for everyone to listen to.

Hector Berlioz’s Damnation of Faust, written in 1845, is an epic work for voices and orchestra, which tells the story of the aging and world-weary scholar Faust who is tricked by the Devil into seducing a young woman and ends up in Hell. This “Hungarian March” occurs in the first part of the work, and its relentless good cheer forms an ironic counterpoint to Faust’s existential misery. When the march is excerpted, of course, as it is here, the good cheer remains and the irony is lost.

Tubby the Tuba, a work written in 1945 by the lyricist Paul Tripp and the composer George Kleinsinger, is both a kid-oriented introduction to some of the instruments in the orchestra, and a fable about the importance of self-esteem, especially if you are, like both tubas and bullfrogs, the butt of too many jokes.

Arturo Marquez is a Mexican composer. “Danzon No. 2,” written in 1994, is one of his most popular works. It combines elements of dance music from both Cuba and Mexico. The most prominent Cuban element is the claves rhythm, which you hear first on the wooden sticks appropriately named the clave. This rhythm is five unevenly spaced notes, and you can hear it throughout the piece, sometimes in the percussion but often in other parts of the orchestra too.

Everyone knows “Yankee Doodle.” The exact origins of the tune are not clear, but the words seem to have been written by a British doctor as an insult to the Revolutionary Americans—Yankees who were uncouth and couldn’t tell the difference between feathers and macaroni. But for whatever reason, these Americans proudly adopted the song, and here it is, strikingly arranged by Morton Gould.

Edvard Grieg’s only piano concerto, written in 1868, is a favorite with pianists and audiences alike. It allows the pianist to show off both her virtuosity and her sweet tone in the lyrical sections. The Midcoast Symphony Orchestra is proud to play the first movement with rising young pianist Mesa Schubeck.

Rimsky-Korsakov was one of the most famous composers and teachers in Russia at the end of the nineteenth century. One of Rimsky’s signal qualities as a composer was his brilliant use of the orchestra to create different colors. Depicting Spain (or “España”) had long been an opportunity for composers to show off what they could do with the resources of a full orchestra, as well as to write music that puts sultry melodies alongside infectious dance-like rhythms. Rimsky's Capriccio Espagnol does not disappoint.

©Mary Hunter 2022

Individual Performers

Mesa Schubeck

Raised in the coastal village of Blue Hill, Maine, Mesa Schubeck's musical roots began with an immersion in her family’s folk music tradition. Drawn to the piano at a young age, her formative instruction was influenced by the Suzuki method, and her dedicated classical training was honed through her early teachers Win Pusey and Dr. Ginger Hwalek. Gaining a degree in Piano Performance, with a minor in Business Administration at the University of Maine, Orono, and studying with Baycka Voronietsky, Mesa's collegiate experience included: University Singers, Renaissance, an all female a cappella group, UMaine Jazz Ensemble, accompanist for Collegiate Chorale, and guest conductor for University Singers.

Throughout her musical development, the influence of pop, rock, jazz and soul artists has contributed to her diverse style. Traveling to “Music City” in 2014 with a pop/rock trio, she settled in Nashville for three years, composing, performing, and recording. In addition, as a sought-after collaborative pianist and musical director, she worked multiple productions with Belmont University and Middle Tennessee State University theater departments.

Mesa returned to Maine in 2017 and completed a Masters in Piano Performance and is currently pursuing a second Masters in Piano Pedagogy at the University of Southern Maine under the mentorship of Dr. Laura Kargul. From 2020-2022 Mesa served on the faculty at Gould Academy teaching middle and high students in general music and individual instruction.

Now as a resident of Portland, Maine, Mesa is active as a performing artist, accompanist, and full-time teaching artist at 317 Main Community Music Center in Yarmouth. She is thrilled to be diving deeper into classical piano through her graduate work and is honored to have the opportunity to perform with the Midcoast Symphony Orchestra as the winner of the 2022 Judith Elser Concerto Competition.

Doug Ertman

Doug Ertman has been the tubist (and occasional cellist) for the MSO since 2008. As a high school and early college student he played cello and euphonium in the school orchestra and concert bands. After an almost 30-year stretch of non-music activities—sports, medical degree, starting a family—he decided to take up the tuba. He studied with Scott Vaillaincourt in Lewiston and has attended low brass workshops with Oysten Baadsvik, Velvet Brown, and the Sotto Voce Tuba Quartet. He plays with the Bayside Brass Quintet and Low Commotion, a tuba-euphonium ensemble. He is a family physician employed in Urgent Care with Mercy Hospital.

Denise Shannon

Denise Shannon is a violinist in the MSO, an actor, and voice actor. She has played the main character Rhonda on the Restless Shores podcast since January 2019. Denise can also be heard doing radio interviews for MSO on WIGY and WCME prior to each concert.

She says her voice training started when reading stories to her two children and realizing they were more entertained when she added some dramatic flair. Although her children are grown, she hopes to give you a bit of fun in hearing her rendition of Tubby the Tuba.

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