NVYO March 6, 2022 Program .pdf

Program Notes - March 6 2022

THEMES FROM DOWNTON ABBEY JOHN LUNN (b 1956) is an Emmy Award winning Scottish composer, known for the music of the series Downton Abbey and many other television and movie soundtracks; he has also written operas and a violin concerto. Of the famous Downton Abbey theme he says: " It's a haunting theme that evokes the turning of years, and the uncertainty and undercurrents of tragedy that touched everyone's lives during a period of transition, from the sinking of the Titanic in 1912, through the First World War, and into the turbulent 1920s."

ACADEMIC FESTIVAL OVERTURE German composer JOHANNES BRAHMS (1833 – 1897) composed this piece as one of a pair of concert overtures (the other being the "Tragic Overture," which Philharmonic performed in 2020.) He wrote Academic Festival Overture during the summer of 1880 as a tribute to the University of Breslau, which had notified him that it would award him an honorary doctorate in philosophy. His composition based on "four rollicking student songs" was not quite the serious composition that the University expected, but it has since become of of his most famous and most-performed works.

THEME FROM SWAN LAKE Russian composer PYOTR I TCHAIKOVSKY (1840-1893) wrote the music for the ballet Swan Lake in 1876; its initial staging was not successful, though many recognized the beauty of the music. Several revisions and re-stagings followed, and it is now one of the most frequently performed ballets in the world. The arrangement performed today is of one of the most beautiful themes from Swan Lake: Op. 20a, No. 1 Scène; it provides both technical and musical challenges for developing students in developing phrasing, tremolo, dynamic contrasts, and rhythmic understanding.

STARFIRE : WORLD PREMIERE At age fifteen, DR. SCOTT HINES (b 1958) began a career in radio broadcasting as a DJ on several stations in Illinois, Kentucky and Indiana. After 15 years, he returned to school, earning his DMA in composition from the University of Memphis in 2008. He has received commissions from Ballet Memphis and the Chicago Chamber Orchestra among others. Dr. Hines is adjunct faculty in the theory department and teaches composition and sound design at the University of Memphis Rudi E. Scheidt School of Music. The fanfare “Starfire” was commissioned by the Fox Valley Symphony in 2020. Dr. Hines comments, “I'm honored to receive the commission from the symphony. Dr. Sütterlin requested a fanfare ... I wanted to write something exuberant ... After several false starts, the opening trumpet fanfare came to mind and the Starfire was off and running.”

DANCE OF THE YAO PEOPLE In 1951, LIU TIESHAN – a teacher at the Central Conservatory in Beijing – and several of his students traveled to southern China to study and collect folk music. Liu gathered several of the melodies they heard into a piece called Long Drum Dance of the Yao People, which his colleague MAO YUAN orchestrated in 1952 as Dance of the Yao Tribe, a multi-sectional medley of contrasting elements, beginning in haunted yearning song and ending in high energy dance. It has since been arranged in many versions, inspired several pop songs around the world, and was used in the soundtrack to the ’80s video game The Way of the Exploding Fist.

SOUL OF REMEMBRANCE, FROM FIVE MOVEMENTS IN COLOR MARY D. WATKINS (b 1936) wrote Five Movements in Color on commission from the Camellia Orchestra in Sacramento, California. Intended to be part of Black History Month, the work is described by the composer as “a statement about the African-American experience.” She describes Soul of Remembrance, the second movement: “A melody floats over a march...I saw my own people in their long march to fully express themselves as fully human—it’s bittersweet and nostalgic, a song of sorrow and a song of hope.” Watkins started taking piano lessons at the age of four. “From the very beginning I was admonished to confine my piano playing to the written notes on the page because it was of great importance that I be ‘literate,’” she says. “At some point . . . my teacher and mother knew I was playing by ear.” When she was fifteen, she entered a piano competition playing her own not-by-the-notes version of Schubert’s Ave Maria. She didn’t win, but her second place prize was a season ticket to the Pueblo Civic Symphony. That, along with some music classes she took at Pueblo Community College, convinced her she wanted to be a composer. She eventually moved to Washington, D.C. and graduated from Howard University. Since the 1980s she has focused on composing a variety of music for stage, film, dance and orchestra. - John Verineau

MEPHISTO MASQUÉ : POLKA FANTASTIQUE EDMOND DÉDÉ (1827-1903) was born a free black in New Orleans; his father was a professional musician of French West Indian origin. Unable to advance beyond a certain level of study because of the racism of the place and time, Edmond worked in a cigar factory by day, and played in orchestras in the evening to save enough to move to Paris, where he studied at the Paris Conservatory. He married a French woman, and built a successful career as a conductor, violinist and composer. After settling in Bordeaux in 1864, he returned to New Orleans only once, in 1893. During the voyage to the United States, his freightliner sank; he was rescued but lost his beloved and valuable violin. He persevered with a successful concert tour in New Orleans, although many venues were closed to him and other Black musicians , forcing him to perform in less than ideal settings. He returned to France, where he lived until his death. Dédé composed music in many genres including opera, ballet, chamber music and popular songs. Though famous in France, his music disappeared from the repertoire after his death; it was later rediscovered in the archive of the Bibliothèque National in Paris. The music found was not in good condition, considerable ‘renovation’ required to bring it to performing standards. Méphisto Masqué was originally for piano, and then arranged by the composer for ophicleide and orchestra. The version performed today is a newly commissioned arrangement.

From the arranger: “As the first composer chosen for the Black Composer Revival Consortium, I was afforded the incredible opportunity to select a work by a lesser-known/unknown Black composer to resurrect, and decided to revitalize Edmond Dédé's Mephisto Masqué. ..While Dédé's piece is masterful "as is," I believe that these large ensemble orchestrations will aid in cementing Mephisto Masqué as standard repertoire for groups of varying skill levels for years to come.” --Lawren Brianna Ware

Coaches, mentors, and video & ZOOM coaches this season include:

Dr. Simona Barbu, Andrew Barhite, Claire Barhite, Shari Boschee, Dr. Lisa Bost-Sandberg, Erin Cummings*, Sarah Curtiss, Cory Driscoll, Katlynn Ellis*, Ligia Feo, Jessica Folson, Matthew Fowler, Gabrielle Halliday, Dr. Cody Hunter*, Sarah Harlow, Miaoqian Liu*, Claire Mellema*, Dr. Brian Pfeifer, Katie Svendson*, Angela Urlacher*, Tyler York *denotes performing today