Symphony Season Finale 2023 - Future Stars and Firebirds

THE UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN MISSISSIPPI SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA

SEASON 103

dr. michael miles, music director

FUTURE STARS AND FIREBIRDS!

APRIL 27, 2023 BENNETT AUDITORIUM 7:30 p.m.

Good evening! We are so pleased that you could join us tonight for a very special program. Each year, the Symphony Orchestra conducts our William T. Gower Student Concerto Competition. Our students embrace the competition as an opportunity to compete against their colleagues with the ultimate prize being a performance with the Symphony Orchestra. This year, we welcome three extremely talented young artist who represent the global diversity of our music program. I hope you will read the brief bios of these talented students and appreciate the lengths they went to in order come to our campus for their musical training and education.

It speaks so very highly of the quality and status of our School of Music.

Performing on a stage in a concert hall in front of a large audience is always a challenge for any music student. When you add the additional pressure of performing with a symphony orchestra made up of your colleagues, the stress level raises significantly.

This is not just another performance to these students. This is THE performance for these students. To perform as they do under these pressures is part of their education and training, and I hope you will provide them your enthusiastic support while appreciating their talent and courage.

Our evening ends with Igor Stravkinsky’s Suite from the Firebird (1919). This was Stravinsky’s first of many successful collaborations with Serge Diaghilev, the Russian arts impresario and head of the Ballets Russes. Stravinsky’s music is especially dramatic and expressive, and he accomplishes this through a variety of compositional techniques that are extremely technically and rhythmically difficult for the performers. His music tends to be quite challenging for professional orchestras and presents a particularly difficult challenge for college students. In this work, the students have been asked to stretch themselves to re-imagine the music in a manner that accurately expresses Stravinsky’s musical intent. The range of expression and emotion is extreme, and I hope you appreciate our students’ hard work to bring all that to light in their performance.

This is our final concert of the season, and we always appreciate your patronage and support. We are looking forward to next season when we will focus our series on bringing you Music of the Worlds. Thank you, for another wonderful Symphony Season.

See you at the Symphony!

THE UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN MISSISSIPPI COLLEGE OF ARTS AND SCIENCES SCHOOL OF MUSIC present

The University of Southern Mississippi Symphony Orchestra Dr. Michael Miles, music director with

William T. Gower Student Concerto Competition Winners Yinghan Zhang, piano Amani Zouehid, cello Alexander Ilchev, violin THURSDAY, APRIL 27, 2023 BENNETT AUDITORIUM 7:30 p.m.

Concerto for piano No. 3 in C minor, op. 37 Ludwig van Beethoven III. Rondo: Allegro (1770-1827) Yinghan Zhang, piano Concerto for violin in D minor, op. 47 II. Adagio di molto III. Allegro, ma non tanto

Jean Sibelius (1865-1967)

Alexander Ilchev, violin Intermission Concerto for cello in B minor, op. 104 I. Allegro

Antonin Dvořák (1841-1904)

Amani Zouehid, cello Suite from the Firebird (1919)

This program presented in part by a generous grant from Partners for the Arts

Igor Stravinsky (1882-1971)

Suite from The Firebird The Firebird was the first of several groundbreaking collaborations between Igor Stravinsky and Serge Diaghilev, head of the Ballets Russes. It also became the young and then unknown composer’s letter of introduction to the musical world. Before contacting Stravinsky, Diaghilev had approached five other composers about writing music for The Firebird, including the notoriously lazy Anatoly Liadov, who couldn’t (or didn’t) finish the music in time for Diaghilev to rehearse the dancers. Desperate, Diaghilev turned to Stravinsky, who jumped at the opportunity to work with the renowned Russian impresario and his equally famous ballet troupe. Stravinsky completed the music relatively quickly, during the winter and spring of 1909–10. The Firebird was an instant success for both impresario and composer from the moment it premiered on June 25, 1910, in Paris. The orchestral suites Stravinsky later created have remained equally popular with symphony audiences.

Stravinsky’s inventive, virtuosic use of orchestral colors and abrupt, repetitive rhythms took audiences on a sound journey unlike any they had previously experienced. The music, combined with Michel Fokine’s innovative choreography and the dazzling sets and costumes of Alexander Golovin, made The Firebird a unified creation, not simply a ballet with interesting music and costumes. It had been Diaghilev’s aim to present a work that synthesized all its elements, and critics were duly impressed. Henri Ghéon thought the work “the most exquisite marvel of equilibrium that we have ever imagined between sounds, movements and forms.”

The Firebird is a patchwork tale, whose story and characters are drawn from several sources in Russian folklore. In the Introduction, Prince Ivan, while hunting, discovers an enchanted garden, wherein dwells the magical Firebird, and captures her. The murky opening notes, intoned by strings, low winds and brasses, establish the mythic nature of the story. In exchange for her freedom, the Firebird gives Ivan one of her magic feathers in the Dance of the Firebird (agitated strings alternating with pensive winds).

Ivan continues his hunt and finds the castle in which the evil King Kashchei is holding 13 princesses captive. To amuse themselves, the princesses dance in the castle courtyard to a lyrical oboe solo while playing with golden apples. The princesses tell Ivan that the green-clawed Kashchei (in some versions a sorcerer-king, in others a terrifying ogre) turns people into stone. Ivan, protected by the Firebird’s magic feather, provokes Kashchei.

Suddenly the Firebird appears and enchants Kashchei and his hideous ogres, causing them to dance themselves into exhaustion in the Infernal Dance. After they collapse, the Firebird’s gentle Lullaby, an ethereal bassoon melody, lulls them to an eternal sleep. The princesses and all of Kaschchei’s stone victims are freed, and the Final Hymn captures their joy with dazzling, triumphant chords.

Concerto for Piano No. 3 in C minor

As a composer, Beethoven experienced some encouraging success at the turn of the 19th century. He wrote his first two symphonies, his first set of string quartets, the famous “Moonlight” Sonata, and the ballet, The Creatures of Prometheus, among other works.

Beethoven’s encroaching deafness meant that his days as a performer were coming to an end, but in 1800, when he wrote the Piano Concerto No. 3 in C minor, he was still able to play, acting as the soloist at the premiere in 1803. Beethoven dedicated the concerto to Prince Louis Ferdinand of Prussia, a soldier, nobleman and composer, whose considerable skills as a pianist gained him the respect of his musical peers.

Piano Concerto No. 3 is Beethoven’s first in a minor key. It follows the standard three-movement format of the classical concerto, although there are aspects of it that show the composer already leaving classical conventions behind. The third and final movement has a rondo structure with a lively theme that returns periodically both in the piano and in the ensemble. The key is once again in C minor, interrupted by a very sweet section in A major. Beethoven’s grasp of the dramatic is evident as the main theme and the sweet theme vie for prominence. Near the end, the soloist has a final moment in the spotlight before the piano and ensemble play the lyrical major key theme, ending the work on a bright note.

Concerto for Cello in B minor, Op. 104 Antonín Dvořák’s (1841–1904) Cello Concerto in B Minor, Op. 104, is one of the most beloved concertos in the orchestral canon and one of Dvořák’s most enduring works. But you may be surprised to learn that Dvořák initially wasn’t so keen on the idea of the cello as a solo instrument. He wrote, “The cello is a beautiful instrument, but its place is in the orchestra and in chamber music. As a solo instrument, it isn’t much good,” because “the upper voice squeals and the lower growls.” But Dvořák found a way to make it work through his thoughtful scoring that allows for balance between the soloist and orchestra so that the sweet low and middle registers of the cello are never overshadowed, while also affording the soloist plenty of virtuosic moments to shine.

In 1892, Dvořák was invited to come to America to teach at the recently established National Conservatory of Music in New York City. Wealthy arts patron Jeannette Thurber founded the institution in an effort to raise the standard of American art music to rival that of Europe, hiring prominent teachers and composers from around the world to lend their expertise.

While in New York, Dvořák saw the potential of what a cello concerto could be when he heard one by Victor Hubert at a concert in Brooklyn. New York’s landscape also was an influential factor. On a visit to Niagara Falls in 1892, Dvořák reportedly exclaimed, “My word, that is going to be a symphony in B minor!” Though he never ended up writing a symphony in B minor, his resulting Cello Concerto in B minor is certainly symphonic in scope. And it goes almost without saying that the Concerto has an unmistakable Slavic folk quality. In many of its pages there is a genuine nostalgia that can only be attributed to Dvorak’s homesickness for the Bohemian countryside he loved so deeply. Indeed, he spent his American summers in the town of Spillville, Iowa, where there was a fairly large community of immigrants from Bohemia.

The first movement starts softly, with the clarinets introducing the theme. The full orchestra later plays the theme in a grandioso manner, leading to a horn solo, which introduces the secondary, lyrical theme. The first theme is played throughout the movement and during the last part of the third movement, giving the concerto a cyclic structure. The solo cello begins with a quasi improvisando section stating the theme in B major followed by triple-stopped chords. The cello then plays the theme again in E major.

This concerto requires virtuosic technical ability, especially in the coda, where the cello plays octaves and many double stops. The movement ends with the restatement of the first theme marked grandioso and fortissimo.

The concerto was premiered in London in the spring of 1896, with Dvorák himself conducting.

Violin Concerto in D minor

The Violin Concerto’s composition and premiere was a turbulent path filled with delays, disasters and ill-will. In 1903, Sibelius was in one of his more compositionally prolific periods, but he was troubled. Tales of alcoholism, or at least drinking far too much, are rampant, and there is an anecdote that his wife had to go searching for him at a local pub to prompt him to finish writing the third movement for the Violin Concerto’s premiere.

The premiere was held in November of 1904 with Sibelius conducting and Victor Novacek as the soloist. The premiere was nothing short of a disaster, with a trifecta of issues: an inexperienced soloist, his inability to prepare properly because the Concerto was not finished in a timely manner, and the resultant work was one of the most virtuosic concertos ever to be written.

The failed outcome is not surprising. Sibelius withdrew the work and spent the next year revising it. The new version premiered in Berlin in October 1905, again at a time when its intended dedicatee, Burmester, was unavailable. Sibelius then asked Karel Halíř to be the soloist for his revamped Violin Concerto while Richard Strauss was the conductor.

Burmester was so incensed by this slight that he vowed to never play Sibelius’ Violin Concerto, making him no longer a suitable candidate for the work’s dedication. Sibelius settled on a young prodigy (perhaps as a nod to his unfulfilled boyhood dream) by the name of Ferenc von Vecsey, age twelve, to dedicate his new work.

Sibelius does not rely on the traditional orchestra and soloist prototypes in his Violin Concerto. There is hardly any musical conversation between the two forces, unlike most Romantic works for violin and orchestra. The orchestra and soloist rarely share melodic material, and while there are some splendid moments for the orchestra, one never forgets that this work is first and foremost a vehicle for the violin soloist. Sibelius’s biographer, Eric Tawaststjerna, wrote this of the Concerto’s gestalt, “The Concerto is distinctly Nordic in its overwhelming sense of nostalgia. The orchestra does not wallow in rich colors, but in the sonorous halflights of autumn and winter; only on rare occasions does the horizon brighten and glow.”

The second movement is lyrical and song-like, with different colors of winds repeating the opening motif before the soloist’s entrance. The reverie is broken in the middle section by a passionate orchestral interlude in the minor mode, leading into the violin solo which continues the tempestuous character. It finally reaches its peak after a series of trills in the highest tessitura, and then meanders back to the gentleness of the opening. The third movement is in a modified Rondo form, which alternates between playful and dance-like to the darker and more serious tones of the rest of the concerto.

THE UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN MISSISSIPPI SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA Violin 1 Alejandro Junco, concertmaster Marlene Gentile Adelle Paltin Juan Lincango Laura Lopera Jonathan Chen Casey Macklin Borislava Iltcheva Violin 2 Federico Franco, principal Lily Martinez Icaro Santana Angelina Sidiropoulou Alejandro Lopez Dexter Rodkey Victor Amaut Grace Pineda Viola Isabella Marques, principal Christian Avila Nicole Herrera Ana Sofia Suarez Cecilia Araujo Cello Cristian Sanchez, principal Mauricio Unzueta Alejandro Restrepo Evelin Lopez Brian Lorett Kassandra Henriquez Franco Galetto Courtney Francois Bass Wendell de Rosa Rodrigues, principal Daniel Magalhaes Jose Luis Cuellar Carlos Herrera Nick Shellenberg Matheus Henriquez Pedro Areco Manuel Jara Ramirez Charlie Levindoski

Piccolo Camden Sidenstricker Flute Katerina Bachevska, principal Camden Sidenstricker Oboe Ruth Moreno Calderón, principal Becca Chadwick English Horn Becca Chadwick Clarinet Freddy Mora, principal Gerby Guerra Galvan Bassoon Osvaldo Redondo Alfaro, principal Jordon Vestal Horn Anna Zurawski, principal Abby Loftin Brian Alston Chance Rootes Trumpet Mariah Atwood, principal Ethan Farnsworth Trombone Caleb Owenby, principal Richard Horne Bass Trombone Joseph Dunn Tuba Dawson Foster Timpani Josh Hale Percussion JD Dunklee Sam Shaner

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yinghan zhang

Pianist Yinghan Zhang is from Luoyang, China.

She received her undergraduate and master’s degrees in piano performance from the Wuhan Conservatory of Music. In 2019, she won the Excellence Award in the Youth Final of the Sixth Yangtze River Piano Cup competition. In 2020, she received first prize in the Wuhan Division of the Third Liszt International Youth Piano Competition. She is currently pursuing a Doctor of Musical Arts degree in piano performance at USM and studies with Dr. Ellen Price Elder.

amani zouehid Amani Zouehid is currently a music performance major student in cello under Dr. Alexander Russakovsky and a minor in media and entertainment arts management student at The University of Southern Mississippi. Zouehid was born in Puerto Cabello, Venezuela, in 1997. Amani grew up under a rich and extensive mix of Arabic and Venezuelan culture, taking with her the best of both everywhere she goes. Amani started her musical studies and orchestral experience at the age of seven in the prestigious Venezuelan program El Sistema. At 14 years old, Amani was admitted to the Simon Bolivar Music Conservatory, Latin American Academy of Violoncello in Caracas, and the Carabobo Youth Symphony Orchestra in Valencia, Venezuela. She has gained orchestral experiences through the years under the baton of many distinctive conductors. In 2015, Amani participated in national tours with the Carabobo Youth Symphony Orchestra, sharing music with colleagues from different states, as well as getting to know more of her country through the power of music. With an appetite for learning, Amani has participated in various music festivals, masterclasses, and competitions connecting with musicians from over the world, learning and expanding her musical career.

In 2019, She participated in Eastern Music Festival, North Carolina, in which took lessons with Amy Frost Baumgarten, Julian Schwarz and Neal Cary. She also participated in the Concerto Competition offered in the same festival, receiving honorable mention, and most recently

performed in the Mansfield Solo Concert Series offered in Vermont USA

by Green Mountain Chamber Music Festival. Amani has received cello masterclasses with numerous internationally recognized cello professors such as Johan Stern (principal cello of Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra), Yovan Markovitch (Danel String Quartet), Nina Lee (Brentano String Quartet), and Bion Tsang, among others. She is currently an active member of the cello section of the Meridian Symphony Orchestra, Gulf Coast Symphony Orchestra and Pensacola Symphony Orchestra.

alexander ilchev Alexander Alexandrov Ilchev began learning the violin at the age of seven with Ekaterina Dramalieva as his teacher. Later, he continued his studies with his father, Professor Alexander Petrov Ilchev. He took part in the following festivals: New Bulgarian Music (2010) and Sofia Music Weeks (2020) where he performed music from contemporary Bulgarian composers. In 2021, together with his parents, he recorded Trio Concertante by Vassil Kazandjiev for the Bulgarian National Radio. As a soloist, he performed multiple times with the Academy Symphony Orchestra. Solo performances include Bach Double Concerto for Two Violins and violin concertos by Beethoven, Mendelssohn and Brahms. With Dr. Borislava Iltcheva, they presented music for two violins

by Dinos Constantinides. Alexander has attended violin master classes led by Gil Shaham, Shlomo Mintz, Vadim Repin, Kevork Mardirossian, Albena Danailova, Liliana Bernardi and Svetlin Roussev. He graduated from the National Academy of Music “Prof. Pancho Vladigerov” with a master’s degree. He is currently studying with Dr. Borislava Iltcheva at The University of Southern Mississippi. His awards include the 2021 XII Academy Violin Competition “Ludwig van Beethoven” – first prize; the 2018 X Academy Violin Competition – first prize; the 2017 XII International Competition for young performers, Pernik – first Prize; the 2015 XXIII International Competition for Instrumentalists and Composers, “Music and Earth,” Sofia - first prize, section Chamber Music; and the 2014 XXIV National Competition for Instrumentalists and Singers, “Svetoslav Obretenov,” Provadia – first prize.

Dr. michael miles Dr. Michael Miles is a unique brand of musician whose career includes a blend of musical and academic positions. Dr. Miles’ academic career includes appointments at Western Carolina University and Florida International University, and administrative appointments at Southeastern Oklahoma State University, and University of Southern Mississippi.

Dr. Miles’ appreciation for all forms and styles of music are evident in the variety of performing, conducting and music directing positions he has enjoyed. As a trumpet artist Dr. Miles has performed with dozens of symphony orchestras. Dr. Miles is also an accomplished conductor and music director having successfully led jazz ensembles, wind bands, symphony orchestras and musical theater pit orchestras. In addition to his current duties as Director of Orchestral Activities at Southern Miss, Miles’ conducting appointments include Music Director of the Hattiesburg Civic Light Opera Company, Music Director of the Oklahoma Youth Symphonies, and Music Director of the Oklahoma Shakespearean Festival. Miles recently conducted the USM Chamber Orchestra in its Carnegie Hall debut and served as Guest Conductor of the Festival Orchestra at the V Clinicas Instrumentalis in Cartegena, Columbia. Dr. Miles has also served as guest conductor with the Xinghia Conservatory Orchestra of Guangzhou, China, Vidin (Bulgaria) Philharmonic, Springfield Symphony, Tulsa Philharmonic, Tallahassee Symphony, New Mexico University Symphony, and Oklahoma Youth Orchestra. Miles also serves on the conducting faculty of the Vienna Summer Institute.

Dr. Miles’ love of the theater is evidenced by his serving as music director for over 200 musical theater performances involving 55 different musical theater productions, including the recent highly acclaimed Southern Miss productions of The Drowsy Chaperone, Phantom of the Opera, Magic of the Musical Stage, West Side Story, Mary Poppins, Ragtime, Showbiz Showstoppers, Showbiz Harmony, and Sweeney Todd. The Phantom of the Opera and James and the Giant Peach productions were awarded the prestigious American Prize for Musical Theater in 2018.

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STRINGS

Dr. Borislava Iltcheva, violin Dr. Hsiaopei Lee, viola Dr. Alexander Russakovsky, cello Dr. Marcos Machado, bass Dr. Nicholas Ciraldo, guitar

WOODWINDS

Dr. Danilo Mezzadri, flute Dr. Galit Kaunitz, oboe Dr. Jackie McIlwain, clarinet Dr. Kim Woolly, bassoon Dr. Dannel Espinoza, saxophone

BRASS

Dr. Rob Detjen, horn Dr. Tim Tesh, trumpet Dr. Ben McIlwain, trombone Dr. Richard Perry, tuba Dr. John Wooton, percussion

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