Park University International Center for Music Presents
ICM Orchestra
ANNUAL VALENTINE CONCERT WITH GUEST CONDUCTOR JASON SEBER
Friday, February 7, 2025 • 7:30 p.m. Graham Tyler Memorial Chapel
Connect With Your Audience
WELCOME TO OUR 22ND SEASON!
Dear Esteemed Patrons and Lovers of Music,
As we embark on a new season at the International Center for Music at Park University, I find myself reflecting on the profound impact that music has on our lives. It’s not just the sound that resonates, but the emotion and dedication behind every performance that truly moves us. As Artistic Director and founder of this institution, I am continuously inspired by the exceptional talents of our students, faculty, and guest artists who pour their hearts into their craft. Kansas City is a remarkable place, home to a community that cherishes and supports the arts with unparalleled enthusiasm. Our concert series is designed to bring you closer to the magic of live music, offering an intimate and accessible way to experience the brilliance of our performers.
Our mission remains steadfast: to create an environment where musical excellence thrives, free from the distractions and financial burdens that often hinder artistic growth. At Park ICM, we are committed to nurturing the next generation of musicians with the same intensity and focus that shaped my own musical journey.
This season, we are proud to present a lineup that includes not only our extraordinary students and faculty but also internationally acclaimed guest artists whose contributions to the world of music are nothing short of legendary. In keeping with our mission, we will also introduce you to the newborn stars, the bright talents who represent the future of classical music. Each concert is an opportunity to witness the convergence of passion, discipline, and talent, creating moments that linger in the heart and mind.
I invite you to join us in celebrating the transformative power of music. Your presence and support are invaluable to us, fueling our drive to reach new heights of artistic achievement. Together, let’s create a symphony of shared experiences that transcends time and space.
With deep gratitude,
Stanislav Ioudenitch Founder and Artistic Director International Center for Music at Park University
P.S. Each performance is a manifestation of our shared love for music. Your presence and applause amplify our drive to elevate the art form further.
PROGRAMME
ICM Orchestra Annual Valentine Concert with Guest Conductor Jason Seber
EINE KLEINE NACHTMUSIC, K.525
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1746-91)
..............................................
Allegro
Romanze: Andante
Menuetto: Allegretto
Finale: Allegro
ADORATION
.................................................. Florence Price, arr. Fine (1887-1953)
AIR AND SIMPLE GIFTS
John Williams (b.1932)
SYMPHONIC VARIATIONS FOR PIANO AND ORCHESTRA
Cesar Franck (1822-90)
Ilya Shmukler, piano
SERENADE FOR STRINGS, OP.20
Sir Edward Elgar (1857-1934)
Allegro piacevole
Larghetto
Allegretto “MAKE
OUR GARDEN GROW” FROM CANDIDE
Leonard Bernstein, arr. Ricketts (1918-90)
TONIGHT’S GUEST CONDUCTOR
Jason Seber
Jason Seber is known for his inviting and engaging approach on and off the podium. A strong believer in the eclectic experiences which today’s symphony orchestras offer their communities, he strives to make music of many genres and styles accessible, relevant, and meaningful to diverse audiences across the country.
Seber has conducted many leading American orchestras, including the Colorado, Detroit, Houston, Indianapolis, Kansas City, Milwaukee, Nashville, National, San Diego, and St. Louis Symphony, the Louisville and Minnesota Orchestra, the Cincinnati Pops, and the Buffalo Philharmonic, among others. Upcoming performances include debuts with the North Carolina Symphony, Baltimore Symphony, and Phoenix Symphony. Seber has conducted over 20 full feature films and has had the pleasure of performing with a wide range of artists including Patti Austin, Mason Bates, Andrew Bird, Boyz II Men, Jinjoo Cho, Melissa Etheridge, Ben Folds, Cody Fry, Renee Elise Goldsberry, Indigo Girls, Paul Jacobs, Wynonna Judd, Lyle Lovett, Katharine McPhee, Natalie Merchant, Brian Stokes Mitchell, My Morning Jacket, Leslie Odom Jr., Aoife O’Donovan, Pink Martini, Ben Rector, Stephen Schwartz, Doc Severinsen, Conrad Tao, Bobby Watson, and Joyce Yang.
Seber served as associate conductor of the Kansas City Symphony from 2016 to 2022. In this position he led the Symphony in over 300 performances on the Classical, Pops, Classics Uncorked, Family, Film + Live Orchestra, Education, and Christmas Festival series. He also served as co-host for the Symphony’s podcast, “Beethoven Walks into a Bar.” Prior to Kansas City, Seber was the education and outreach conductor at the Louisville Orchestra from 2013 to 2016 and music director of the Louisville Youth Orchestra from 2005 to 2016.
A passionate advocate for music education, Seber has led the Honors Performance Series Orchestra in concert at Carnegie Hall, Sydney Opera House, and Royal Festival Hall in London. He is a frequent guest conductor of the National Repertory Orchestra each summer and he has served as the All-State Orchestra conductor for Georgia, Kansas, Missouri, and Pennsylvania.
PARK ICM MUSIC DIRECTOR
Steven McDonald
Originally from Reading, Mass., Steven McDonald, director of orchestral activities, has served on the faculties of the University of Kansas, Boston University and Gordon College. While in Boston, he conducted a number of ensembles, including Musica Modus Vivendi, the student early music group at Harvard University. McDonald also directed ensembles at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, serving as founder and music director of the Summer Opera and Independent Activities Period Orchestra, and conductor of the MIT Chamber Orchestra and the Gilbert and Sullivan Players. At the University of Kansas, McDonald served as assistant conductor of the KU Symphony, and was the founder and music director of the Camerata Ensemble of non-music majors, and of the chamber orchestra “Sine Nomine,” a select ensemble of performance majors. Additionally, he has conducted performances of the KU Opera. He has also served as vocal coach at the Boston University Opera Institute and at Gordon College.
McDonald served as music director of the Lawrence (Kan.) Chamber Orchestra from 2007-14, during which time the group transformed into a professional ensemble whose repertoire featured inventive theme programs and multimedia performances. In 2009, he was selected to conduct the Missouri All-State High School Orchestra, and in 2011 was the first conductor selected as guest clinician at the Noel Pointer Foundation School of Music which serves inner-city students in Brooklyn, N.Y. An avid proponent of early music, McDonald has also taught Baroque performance practice at the Ottawa Suzuki Strings Institute summer music program, and regularly incorporates historically informed practice into his performances. McDonald is a graduate of the Boston University School for the Arts, the Sweelinck Conservatory of Amsterdam (The Netherlands) and the University of Kansas School of Fine Arts.
THIS EVENING’S PIANIST
IIya
Shmukler
“Shmukler is a volcano;” “the name of Ilya Shmukler should be remembered” is how the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung described this pianist after his triumph at the Concours Géza Anda 2024 in Zurich, Switzerland, where he won four major awards in addition to the First Prize.
When he was 3, Ilya’s mother found him jumping on the bed and singing Robertino Loreti’s “Jamaica” beautifully. It was important to his parents, however, to raise their boy as a well-rounded person, so his early years were also spent with school, table tennis, and ballroom dancing before focusing on music.
Since then, Ilya Shmukler made solo appearances in Europe and North America, and performed with such artists as Mikhail Pletnev, Paavo Järvi, Marin Alsop, Nicholas McGegan, Junichi Hirokami, Anne-Marie McDermott, Anton Nel and David Radzynski. Collaborations include the Tonhalle-Orchester Zurich, Musikkollegium Winterthur, the Mariinsky, Fort Worth Symphony, Sendai Philharmonic, Kansas City Chamber, Bayer-Symphoniker, and New Music Orchestras.
To have become a finalist and the recipient of the award for the “Best Performance of a Mozart Concerto” at the 2022 Cliburn Competition is a milestone in his career, as is his New York debut as a winner of the Carnegie Weill Recital Hall Debut Audition in 2022.
An alumnus of the Moscow State Conservatoire under the guidance of Elena Kuznetsova and Sergey Kuznetsov, Ilya continues his studies at Park University (USA) with Stanislav Ioudenitch.
ICM Orchestra
STEVEN MCDONALD, MUSIC DIRECTOR
Violin I
Mumin Turgunov, concertmaster
Yuren Zhang
Vincent Cart-Sanders
Ilkhom Mukhiddinov
Ilvina Gabrielian
Jose Ramirez
Violin II
Aviv Daniel, principal
Yin-Shiuan Ting
Yiyuan Zhang
Soobeen Nam
Alla Krolevich
Casey Gregory
Joanna Metsker
Viola
Christian dos Santos, principal
Victor Diaz
Iana Korzukina
Samin Golozar
Kathryn Hilger
Cello
Nikita Korzukhin, principal
James Farquhar
Mardon Abdurakhmonov
Diyorbek Nortojiyev
Ainaz Jalilpour
Jordan Proctor
Otabek Guchkulov
Bass
Kassandra Ferrero
Krista Kopper
Flute
Christina Webster
Gina Hart-Kemper
Oboe
Erin Huneke
Emily Foltz
Clarinet
Katie Varadi
Wesley Rhodes
Bassoon
Austin Way
Ashley Cypher
Horn
Dwight Purvis
Jeremy Ulm
Trumpet
Jennifer Oliverio
Jena Vangjel
Timpani
Mark Lowry
PROGRAM NOTES
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-91): Serenade No. 13 in G major, K. 525 (“Eine kleine Nachtmusik”)
Of the many instrumental genres prevalent during Mozart’s lifetime, the serenade or “divertimento” is the one most closely associated with the servile role that composers played in the European palaces of the day. After working arduously from dawn to late afternoon — composing, copying, teaching, rehearsing — a composer might then be expected to put on a nightly concert for the after-dinner leisure of his employer.
Such an evening program might have included symphonies, concertos, and even vocal works; but it was just as likely to draw upon one of the numerous types of music grouped under the broad rubric of divertimento — literally, music for diversion. Titles of these works ranged widely: serenade, notturno, partita, tafelmusik, finalmusik. A title often designated the work’s function: The notturno was often performed at about 11 p.m., in contrast to the “serenade” or ständchen, which tended to begin around 9 p.m. and was sometimes association with performance outside of a young woman’s window.
The precise circumstances surrounding the composition of the Serenade in G major are unclear. We do know that it was composed in 1787, when Mozart was occupied with the second act of Don Giovanni. (“Completed in Vienna, August 10, 1787,” he wrote on the title page.)
The subtitle of K. 525 stems from Mozart himself: “eine kleine NachtMusik, comprising an Allegro, Minuet and Trio [later removed], Romance, Minuet and Trio, and Finale,” he wrote when he entered the piece into the handwritten catalog of his works. Thus he might have viewed the work as a notturno, though it was ever after referred to as a serenade.
Portrait By Barbara Kraft
PROGRAM NOTES (CONT.)
Florence Price (1887-1953) arr. Elaine Fine: Adoration
Florence Price’s music has offered us a lesson: that there exist abundant riches of concert music that are largely undiscovered, pushed aside by sociological, political, or gender prejudices. And not until we find these works and present them in exemplary performances by major artists will we know their value. Much of Price’s output (some 300 works) was known during her lifetime, but a struggle to be heard was a central theme. “I have two handicaps: those of sex and race,” she wrote to a fellow composer.
Renewed interest in her music during the past decade or so has resulted in a new appreciation of her remarkable symphonies, concertos, vocal works, and chamber music. The Philadelphia Orchestra’s dazzling recording of Price’s Symphonies 1 and 3, which won the 2022 Grammy Award for Best Orchestral Performance, revealed to a larger public the extent to which Price belonged among the pantheon of great American composers. A cornucopia of subsequent recordings and performances of her works, performed by important artists, has underscored this.
Born in Little Rock, Ark., Price grew up in well-respected family of some means: Her father was the only Black dentist in the city, and her mother taught music. Florence’s gifts at the keyboard and as composer won her a spot at the New England Conservatory, where she was a pupil of Boston composer George Chadwick.
Graduating at age 19, she taught music at Clark Atlanta University but eventually moved to Chicago to escape the dangers and awfulness of the Jim Crow South. The she composed prolifically. She also struck up friendships with major Black artists such as Margaret Bonds, Langston Hughes, and Marian Anderson, and she established a strong relationship with the Women’s Symphony Orchestra of Chicago.
Photo: Emil Matveev
University of Arkansas Libraries Special Collections
PROGRAM NOTES (CONT.)
Price’s music often finds itself squarely in the late-19th-century tradition of Brahms and Dvořák, with hints of Impressionism. She freely joins these styles with hymnody, folk music, and spirituals. The disarming Adoration was published as an organ piece in 1951 and has subsequently been arranged for a variety of ensembles. The string orchestra version is by American composer Elaine Fine.
John Williams (b. 1932): Air and Simple Gifts, for string orchestra
John Williams was an inspired choice as a featured composer for the inauguration of President Barack Obama in 2009. Few American composers have distinguished themselves in such a broad range of genres, and few serious musicians have had the popular reach, or indeed the cultural impact, that this master of cinema and more can boast. Yet a large portion of Williams’ music remains relatively unknown to the public. For in addition to his more than 100 film scores, he has written some 50 orchestral compositions, including concertos and orchestral suites, chamber works, and even a musical (Thomas and the King). Taken together, they exhibit Williams’ signature wealth of memorable themes and dazzling orchestral color; in recent years they have been championed by an increasing number of soloists and ensembles.
A gifted jazz pianist from childhood, Williams studied composition in his native Los Angeles with composer Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco, and after military service he lived in New York, where studied piano with Rosina Lhevinne at the Juilliard School and performed in Manhattan jazz clubs. Moving back to L.A., he began working in television and film, most as pianist, and eventually as arranger and composer.
More than any composer since Korngold, Williams helped blur the lines
PROGRAM NOTES (CONT.)
between concert and film music. From 1980 to 1993 he was a highly influential music director of the Boston Pops Orchestra.
For the inauguration, Williams decided to step back and let the Shaker tune “Simple Gifts” take a front row seat, in an elegant set of variations on the tune that Aaron Copland had used in Appalachian Springs. Untold millions around the world watched the telecast, which featured clarinetist Anthony McGill, violinist Itzhak Perlman, cellist Yo-Yo Ma, and pianist Gabriela Montero. Williams later created the string orchestra version heard this evening.
César Franck (1822-1890):
Symphonic Variations, for piano and orchestra
Franck explored the genre of piano concerto at an early age, completing an earnest if overlong Concerto in B minor at the age of 13 that already showed a grasp of structure and melody and a flair for virtuosic sparkle. (An even earlier concerto might have existed but does not survive.)
Though he composed a great deal of keyboard music throughout his life, including solo organ music and several peerless chamber works, he would not return to concertante genres until the last decade of his life — with two works with piano that were less concertos than they were cyclical tone poems, of the sort he was already composing for orchestra during these years (Les Éolides, The Accursed Horseman, Psyché).
The tone poem had already taken hold earlier in the century, with groundwork established by Franz Liszt and later taken up by Richard Strauss, Elgar, and others. Franck’s Les Djinns for piano and orchestra (1884) was a rhapsodic rumination on a Victor Hugo poem; the Symphonic Variations from 1885, inspired by no evident literary source, is quite simply one of the 19th century’s finest works for piano and orchestra.
Photo by Pierre Petit
MARCH 1, 2025 • 7 P.M. KAUFFMAN CENTER
PRESENTED BY PARK UNIVERSITY
Stanislav & Friends: Echoes of Spain Immerse yourself in an evening of passion and talent
“I look forward to sharing the stage with a stellar lineup of musicians at this all-star gala event. Featuring works inspired by Spanish themes across different composers and time periods, each piece highlights the influence of Spanish melodies, rhythms, and atmosphere in classical music, making this program a celebration of Spain’s rich musical legacy.”
Stanislav Ioudenitch
PROGRAM NOTES (CONT.)
Franck’s outlook had always dwelled a bit outside of the ordinary, despite a musical training — first at Liège in his native Belgium and later in Paris — that was fairly traditional. From an early age he seemed far more interested in composition, and this was his first focus at the Paris Conservatory, but his father was so impressed by his keyboard skills that he pushed him toward a career as concert pianist.
Eventually, César gravitated toward the organ, taking up a position at the Cathedral of Sainte-Clotilde in 1858; later he became professor of organ at the Conservatory. His dual gifts as composer and keyboard virtuoso governed his activities for the next decades.
The Symphonic Variations were written primarily in 1885 and dedicated to the pianist Louis Diémer, Franck’s colleague at the Conservatory, who gave the premiere on May 1, 1886. Alfred Cortot, a Diémer pupil, described the Variations as consisting of “three different poetic states, whose succession ensures the development of the overall plan; each represents a group of variations with a distinct character.” The opening Poco Allegro, a sort of call to attention, is followed by a gentle theme (Allegretto quasi Andante) and a set of variations that grow ever more florid — until they are virtually free-form. The ever-modulating Allegro non troppo unites the principal themes for a rousing finale.
Edward Elgar (1857-1934): Serenade for Strings, Op. 20
Elgar’s early years were those of a small-town lad. He was the fourth of seven children of a violinist father and a literary mother, and he grew up with equal passions for music, reading, and the English countryside. As a teenager he began to learn German in hopes of studying music in Leipzig, but his parents were too poor to send him away. He went to work as an office clerk but also eagerly pursued lessons in organ, piano, and violin, and joined the Worcester Glee Club. An accomplished violinist, he played in Worcester
PROGRAM NOTES (CONT.)
and Birmingham Festivals and of course began to conduct. By the 1880s he was performing regularly in professional orchestras, but his gifts as a composer began to be evident. He had an extraordinary gift for absorbing musical content — including details of orchestration — from his experiences of playing the scores of Berlioz and Wagner. Like many young composers, he began with small-scale genres solo and chamber music.
His concert overture Froissart from 1890 was a bit of a breakthrough, as it was a successful exploration of structure and character. But it was with the Serenade for Strings, which he composed for the Worcester Ladies Orchestral class in 1892, that his gifts as large-ensemble composer came fully to the fore: music of utmost polish, it is as extraordinary for its technical accomplishment as for its distinctive personal voice.
It was one of the first works that Elgar was pleased with. Of its three movements, he later wrote to a friend: “I like ‘em (the first thing I ever did).” The first performance was presented by the Worcester Ladies’ Class, and the official public premiere was in Antwerp in 1896. The Serenade finally had its first Britain performance in 1899, and it quickly caught on. The Allegro piacevole is built on a dynamic pulse and a chiaroscuro mood; the Larghetto slow movement contains one of the most genuine melodies Elgar ever produced. The propulsive Allegretto brings us back, eventually, to the main subject of the first movement.
Leonard Bernstein (1918-1990), arr. Ted Ricketts: “Make Our Garden Grow,” from Candide
Candide is the most operatic of Bernstein’s three big stage works, and it continues to delight and perplex today. Based on Lillian Hellman’s adaptation of Voltaire’s 1759 comedy, with supplemental lyrics by Richard Wilbur and Dorothy Parker, this “comic operetta” (as its creators called it) gave continuous nods to 18th-century musical and
PROGRAM NOTES (CONT.)
theatrical conventions — pastiches of waltzes and gavottes, songs that are like arias, and a headlong overture that would have made Mozart’s head spin.
It was first performed in Boston in October 1956; the Broadway premiere that December was met with mixed reviews. Candide continued to go through a half-dozen revisions, most notably for a revival in 1973 by Harold Prince, in which score and lyrics were drastically altered to make the show more conventionally “popular.” In 1989 Bernstein prepared a concert version that combined the best of the various versions. The story recounts the adventures of Candide, a young man who travels the world seeking to confirm the contention of Pangloss, his tutor, that he lives in the “best of all possible worlds.” After all manner of pain and tribulation, during which Candide concludes that his tutor is wrong, he returns home and builds a life based on honest, realistic expectations.
It is this final resolve that generates “Make Our Garden Grow,” an ensemble number that brings the opera to a close. It has been arranged for various instrumental combinations, including tonight’s skillful version by composer/ arranger Ted Ricketts. “Let us try, before we die, to make some sense of life,”Candide sings. “We’re neither pure nor wise nor good; we’ll do the best we know. We’ll build our house, and chop our wood, and make our garden grow.”
—Paul Horsley
Park International Center for Music
PATRONS SOCIETY MEMBERS
The Park University International Center for Music’s Patrons Society was founded to help students achieve their dreams of having distinguished professional careers on the concert stage.
Just as our faculty’s coaching is so fundamental to our students’ success, our Patrons’ backing provides direct support for our exceptionally talented students, concert season, outreach programs and our ability to impact the communities we serve through extraordinary musical performances.
We are continually grateful for each and every one of our Patrons Society members. For additional information, please visit ICM.PARK.EDU under “Support Us.”
We gratefully acknowledge these donors as of January 16, 2025.
SUPERLATIVE
Brad and Marilyn Brewster *
Steven Karbank
Benny and Edith Lee
Ronald and Phyllis Nolan
John and Debbie Starr
Steven and Evelina Swartzman
Jerry White and Cyprienne Simchowitz *
SUPREME
Jeffrey Anthony
Tom and Mary Bet Brown *
Brad and Theresa Freilich *
Shirley and Barnett C. Helzberg Jr. *
Holly Nielsen
Steinway Piano Gallery of Kansas City
Gary and Lynette Wages
EXTRAORDINAIRE
Vince and Julie Clark
Stanley Fisher and Rita Zhorov *
Susan Morgenthaler *
Rob and Joelle Smith *
PATRON
Kay Barnes and Thomas Van Dyke
Lisa Browar
Mark and Gaye Cohen
Suzanne Crandall
Charles and Patty Garney *
Doris Hamilton and Myron Sildon
Colleen and Ihab Hassan *
Lisa Hickok and Brian McCallister *
Robert E. Hoskins *
William and Regina Kort
Jackie and John Middelkamp *
Kathleen Oldham
Kevin and Jeanette Prenger, ’09 / ECCO Select
James and Laurie Rote *
Stanley and Kathleen Shaffer
Guy Townsend
John and Angela Walker *
Nicole and Myron Wang*
Phil and Barbara Wassmer *
* 2024-2025 Member
David
Radzynski and
Lolita
Radzynski and Lolita Lisovskaya-Sayevich
Lisovskaya-Sayevich in CO N C E R T
IN CONCERT
Friday • March 14, 2025 • 7:30 p.m.
1900 BUILDING • MISSION WOODS, KS
3 0 9 S Stewart Rd, L A PR I L 2 7t h , 7:3 0 PM
St. J a m es C a t holi c C hu r c h
Experience the exceptional musicality of violinist David Radzynski, former concertmaster of The Cleveland Orchestra, and Park ICM Director of Collaborative Piano, Lolita Lisovskaya-Sayevich. David’s illustrious journey from ICM to leading roles with some of the world’s greatest orchestras, and now to concert violinist, when combined with the virtuosity of pianist Lolita, results in a recital that showcases the height of instrumental mastery.
C oncert i s FR E E of cha
No t i ckets r equ i r ed but PARK.
S C AN TO RE Presents David
Scan for tickets! or visit icm.park.edu
The Orchestra of the International Center for Music at Park University presents it s annual spring concer t under the direction of guest conductor Barbara Yahr, music director with the Greenwich Village Orchestra.A native of New York, Ms. Yahr’s career has spanned from the United States to Europe, the Middle East, and Asia!
PARK ICM ORCHESTRA WITH BARBARA YAHR CONDUCTING
April 25, 2025, 7:30 p.m.
Graham Tyler Memorial Chapel
CON C E R T IS FRE E WITH RESE R VAT I ON . SCAN THE CODE TO RSVP.
ICM. PAR K .EDU .
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Providing care to people is a privilege. I never forget that.”
- Becky N. Lowry, MD Physician Internal Medicine
For me, there’s nothing more rewarding than the meaningful connections I make with my patients. Maybe it’s growing up in a small town where those personal values remain strong. Or maybe it’s the belief, shared with all of my co-workers, that people come first. Whatever it is, the opportunity to provide care is a privilege I never forget. To schedule an appointment, call 913-588-1227 or visit KansasHealthSystem.com/Appointments.
