About the Music

John Morris Russell, Music Director and Conductor

Robert and Margaret Gallagher Memorial Chair

2021-2022 | 40TH SEASON Sunday, November 14, 2021 • 4:00 pm Monday, November 15, 2021 • 7:30 pm John Morris Russell, Conductor Michelle Cann, Piano

PROGRAM

LEONARD BERNSTEIN On the Town: Three Dance Episodes The Great Lover Lonely Town (Pas de deux) Times Square: 1944

FLORENCE PRICE Piano Concerto in One Movement

Michelle Cann, Piano

INTERMISSION

FELIX MENDELSSOHN Symphony No. 5 in D major, Op. 107, “Reformation” Andante – Allegro con fuoco Allegro vivace Andante Chorale: Andante con moto – Allegro vivace

MICHELLE CANN

Photo: Steven Mareazi Willis

MICHELLE CANN

PIANO

Michelle Cann Plays Florence Price November 14 & 15, 2021

“Ms. Cann has appeared as co-host and collaborative pianist with NPR’s “From The Top” and has been featured on WRTI and WHYY-TV in Philadelphia.” Concert pianist Michelle Cann is a young artist committed to performing and teaching a wide range of repertoire. She made her orchestral debut at age fourteen and has since performed with various ensembles including the Florida Orchestra, the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra, the Cleveland Institute of Music, and the Sphinx Symphony Orchestra. She has appeared as guest soloist with the Knoxville Symphony and The Dream Unfinished Orchestra and performed with The Philadelphia Orchestra in its debut of Florence Price’s Concerto in One Movement in February, 2021. She regularly appears in recital and as a chamber musician throughout the U.S., China, and South Korea. Notable venues include the National Centre for the Performing Arts in Beijing, the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C., and the Bermuda Festival. Recently, she performed with members of the Los Angeles Philharmonic in its Green Umbrella series at the Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles and again at the Barbican in London.

Ms. Cann has won top prizes in state, national, and international competitions including the International Russian Music Piano Competition, the Blount Slawson Young Artists Competition, and the Wideman International Piano Competition. In 2019 she served as the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra’s MAC Music Innovator in recognition of her role as an African-American classical musician who embodies artistry, innovation, and a commitment to education and community engagement.

Ms. Cann has appeared as co-host and collaborative pianist with NPR’s “From The Top” and has been featured on WRTI and WHYY-TV in Philadelphia. Her summer festival appearances include the Taos Chamber Music Festival, Yellow Barn, Perlman Music Program, and Pianofest in the Hamptons, where she served as artist-in-residence.

She has served as the director of two children’s choruses in the El Sistemainspired program “Play On Philly” and was among the first class of Community Artist fellows at the Curtis Institute of Music.

Ms. Cann holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees in piano performance from the Cleveland Institute of Music, where she studied with Paul Schenly and Daniel Shapiro, and an Artist’s Diploma from the Curtis Institute of Music, where she studied with Robert McDonald.

Ms. Cann served on the faculty of the Sphinx Performance Academy during their inaugural year at The Juilliard School and performed in the Sphinx Symphony Orchestra during its 23rd competition. She joined the faculty of the Curtis Institute of Music in 2020, holding the Eleanor Sokoloff Chair in Piano Studies.

ABOUT THE MUSIC

by Jonathan Aceto

Three Dance Episodes from On the Town

Leonard Bernstein (1918-1990)

This is a great example of how one work of art can grow out of another. Jerome Robbins, the legendary dancer, choreographer and director, created the ballet Fancy Free in 1944 which featured music by Leonard Bernstein. It was a big hit for the American Ballet Theater and was the work that launched both artist’s careers. Shortly after, Robbins and Bernstein were convinced to work the story and music into a musical and began developing it with lyricists Betty Comden and Adolph Green. Later that same year, On the Town opened on Broadway to strong reviews. One of the backers of the production was MGM Studios, which released a film version of the musical in 1949 starring Gene Kelly and Frank Sinatra, but which also replaced many of the songs with new ones by Roger Edens. The story details the adventures of three sailors on 24-hour leave who experience New York City for the first time. In 1945, Bernstein decided to create a suite from the show for orchestras to play in concert. It was premiered in 1946 by the San Francisco Symphony with Bernstein conducting. The first episode, “The Great Lover” describes one of the lead sailors traveling on the subway. He falls asleep and has a dream about sweeping “Miss Turnstiles” off her feet. The music opens with the hustle and bustle of the subway charging down the tracks and is replete with accents and metric displacement. The second episode deals with a high school girl, walking through Central Park, who is wooed and then dumped by another sailor. This Pas de Deux features the song “Lonely Town” and is a great aural representation of the sadness and hopelessness that can come from New York. This section is also the most reminiscent of Aaron Copland’s style and one can easily hear the influence of Bernstein’s mentor.

The final movement is “Times Square: 1944” in which the sailors hang out at that famous intersection. This episode really personifies New York, with jazzy syncopation, frantic scurrying by various instruments, and driving rhythmic complexity. There are two songs from the show interwoven into the musical fabric. “New York, New York” is heard, both in its original form played by the trumpet and in a slower, bluesy form by the saxophone. There is also a brief, raunchy version of the song “Come Up to My Place” played by the trumpet.

Piano Concerto in One Movement

Florence Price (1887-1953)

In the world of early African-American composers, Florence Price ranks among the stars, more so because she is a she! Born in Little Rock, Arkansas, her father was the only black dentist in the city and her mother was a music teacher. Price majored in piano and organ at the New England Conservatory, and also studied composition with George Chadwick and Frederick Converse. After a short time living back in Arkansas, she moved to Chicago where she continued to study music with several teachers, playing organ for silent films to help pay the bills. It was at this point Price became friends with Margaret Bonds, another important black pianist and composer, who subsequently introduced her to Langston Hughes and Marian Anderson. Price began receiving national attention for her music and performances, most notably winning first prize in the Wanamaker Foundation Awards in 1932 for her Symphony in E minor. That prize led Maude George, president of the National Association of Negro