Program: Lessons from Mademoiselle

Lessons from Mademoiselle NADIA BOULANGER’S AMERICAN LEGACY

FEBRUARY 13 6:30 PM

RICE MEMORIAL CHAPEL HOUSTON, TX

WINDSYNC IS Houston’s wind quintet. We infuse a traditional, if uncommon, genre of Western classical chamber music with relevancy and energy by focusing on collaboration, innovation, and programming for the members of our community. Since the ensemble’s founding in 2009, WindSync has developed a reputation as one of the finest North American chamber ensembles, backed by prizes in chamber music performance from the Concert Artists Guild Victor Elmaleh Competition (2012), the Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition (2016), and the M-Prize Chamber Arts Competition (2018).

WindSync’s programming responds to the people and places where we work. In Houston, we curate a concert season and present the Onstage Offstage Chamber Music Festival, spotlighting everyday public spaces as gathering places for culture. Our local presenting partners include the Center for Performing Arts Medicine, Music for Autism, and the Houston Youth Symphony. We have served on the Texas Touring Roster for the Texas Commission on the Arts since 2018.

On the heels of “All Worlds, All Times,” WindSync’s 2022 release that “will make you want to get up and dance” (The Whole Note), we topped the Billboard charts in April 2024 with “WindSync Plays Miguel del Aguila,” recorded at Abbey Road Studios. Stay tuned for the release of tonight’s program, which we recorded last month!

In 2025, WindSync is deeply inspired to work with American composers Akshaya Avril Tucker, Shawn Okpebholo, Viet Cuong, and Michael Begay. We’ll hit the road with a collaboration with pianist Jon Kimura Parker, residency returns to Ravinia and Shelter Island, and a debut at the Moab Music Festival. For tonight, though, we are delighted to welcome you to the campus of Rice University, the place where it all began!

MUSICIANS Garrett Hudson, flute Noah Kay, oboe Graeme Steele Johnson, clarinet Anni Hochhalter, horn Kara LaMoure, bassoon

TONIGHT’S PRE CONCERT SPEAKER

Laura Colgate Co-founder and Director, Boulanger Initiative boulangerinitiative.org

Read more about the musicians online!

PROGRAM Prélude in F minor

Nadia Boulanger/arr. Kara LaMoure

Three Pieces No. 1 Modéré No. 2 Sans vitesse et à l'aise No. 3 Vite et nerveusement rhythmé

Nadia Boulanger/arr. LaMoure

Woodwind Quintet, Op. 48 Allegro commodo Allegro gioviale Andante pastorale Allegro giocoso

Marion Bauer

–intermission– Variations on a Shaker Melody

Aaron Copland/arr. LaMoure

Etude No. 17

Philip Glass/arr. LaMoure

Quintet (1948) Allegretto Giocoso

Elliott Carter

The Midnight Sun Will Never Set

Quincy Jones/arr. Owen Broder

Etude #17 by Philip Glass 2012 Dunvagen Music Publishers Inc. Used by Permission. Photo exhibit made possible by the Woodson Center at Rice University.

This event is sponsored by Dr. Paula Sanders and The Boniuk Institute.

ABOUT Nadia Boulanger: Prelude A towering figure of twentieth century music, Nadia Boulanger was born in 1887 to a family of musicians and entered the Paris Conservatoire at the remarkable age of nine, where she and her sister Lili stood among Gabriel Fauré’s most promising students. Around the time of Lili’s untimely death in 1918, Nadia abandoned composing in favor of teaching composition to the next generation of musicians. The career shift ultimately earned Boulanger cult-like status.

Composer Ned Rorem described Boulanger as the “greatest teacher since Socrates,” and her influence was particularly acute on American music, with the likes of Aaron Copland, Elliott Carter, Quincy Jones, and Philip Glass citing her as an important influence. While brief and self-critical, Boulanger’s compositional period yielded works that could serve as master classes in and of themselves for their rigor and harmonic interest.

Boulanger composed the Prélude in F minor in 1911 for an anthology of organ music to be published the following year. The miniature features a single melody accompanied by parallel lines throughout. Its economical style allows the listener’s ears to perk at the poignant twists of harmony and color in each phrase.

Nadia Boulanger: Three Pieces Boulanger’s Trois Pièces were composed for organ over a number of years, but they are best known in a version for cello and piano published in 1914. Folk-like melodies and old-style counterpoint filter through modes and harmonies associated with French “Impressionist” composers like Fauré and Debussy.

Rather than feature a single solo instrument, WindSync’s transcription is scored for a more organ-like mixture of instrumental colors.

Marion Bauer: Woodwind Quintet, Op. 48 24-year-old Marion Bauer met 19-year-old Nadia Boulanger in Paris in 1906 while living and training with the musical family of pianist Raoul Pugno. Pugno suggested that Boulanger give lessons in counterpoint and harmony to Bauer, reportedly in exchange for English tutoring. Bauer was thus Boulanger’s first American student, and for decades after their introduction, the two musicians’ careers would continue in parallel: both would go on to teach hundreds of students and profoundly impact classical music in the United States, their energetic advocacy eclipsing their reputations as composers. Bauer worked as an instructor and lecturer at New York University, Juilliard, and Columbia University, and she was a founder of the American Music Guild, the American Music Center, and the American Composers Alliance. She also published scholarship reviving interest in women composers and edited the journal Musical Leader, writing music all the while.

The New Art Wind Quintet premiered Bauer’s Woodwind Quintet at Circle on the Square Theater in New York City on February 23, 1953, and the piece was published in 1956, one year after the composer’s death. Despite a promising start as a concert work, the quintet went out of print, and WindSync’s performance of the piece marks its 21st-century revival.

Aaron Copland: Variations on a Shaker Melody A leading light of American music, Aaron Copland was a member of the first class at the Conservatoire Américain in Fontainebleau in 1921. Originally assigned to study composition with Paul Vidal, Copland was drawn instead to Nadia Boulanger’s harmony classes, setting off a lifelong mentorship. Copland’s “Variations on a Shaker Melody” was composed in 1944 for the finale of the Martha Graham ballet Appalachian Spring and later revised as a concert piece.

Philip Glass/arr. LaMoure: Etude no. 17 Philip Glass is widely regarded as one of the most important living composers, working in a style with repetition often categorized as “minimalist”. His family’s record store influenced his early listening as much as conservatory-style training at Peabody, the University of Chicago, and Juilliard did.

From 1964-1966, Glass studied harmony and counterpoint with Nadia Boulanger, and in his autobiography he writes, “I have not written a note of music that wasn’t influenced by her.” Glass’s interest in composing études (studies) calls back to the intensive training he received in Paris, building musical skills from the ground up.

Etude No. 17, taken from Book 2 of the Piano Etudes, was commissioned for the 25th Anniversary of the Menil Collection in Houston, Texas, in 2012.

Elliott Carter: Woodwind Quintet

“In 1948 several woodwind players asked me to write a work for woodwind quintet. On looking over some earlier quintet works, I found the composers were in the habit of overlooking the fact that each of these instruments has a different sound. I, on the other hand, was particularly struck by this, and so decided to write a work that would emphasize the individuality of each instrument and that made a virtue of their inability to blend completely.” --Elliott Carter After studying English at Harvard, Elliott Carter shifted his focus to the language of music, studying for three years with Nadia Boulanger in Paris and embarking on a famously prolific career spanning 75 years. His music is filled with humor and clever structures that play with the relationships between performers. The dedication of the 1948 quintet, his first, reads “To Mademoiselle Nadia Boulanger.”

Quincy Jones: The Midnight Sun Will Never Set Quincy Jones led a distinguished career as a performer, producer, and bandleader, presiding over decades of American music in the fields of jazz, pop, and film. Jones credited his study with Nadia Boulanger in the 1950s with illuminating for him the structure and science of music. “The Midnight Sun Will Never Set,” one of his great classics, has been recorded by artists from Duke Ellington to Sarah Vaughan.

As a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization, WindSync is dedicated to enriching the lives of children, families, and all members of the community with innovative, interactive chamber music concerts and educational programs.

To this end, WindSync is grateful for receiving support through our Circle of Support, public grantmakers, and foundations.

WINDSYNC BOARD OF DIRECTORS Laura Reynolds , president Kipp Johnson, treasurer Meghan Downs, secretary Julian Hernandez Anni Hochhalter, musician chair Jerry Baker, emeritus Beatrice Graham, emeritus

CIRCLE OF SUPPORT Angel ($10,000+) Jerry Baker Beatrice and Gregory Graham David Hooks Michael Steeves Benefactor ($1,000-$9,999) Rebekah Baker Blueprint Film Company Eric Botts and Dianne Reece Tom and Judy Bowser Jon and Edie Burger Donna Collins Meghan and Kevin Downs

Franny's Bartending William Fu Adrian Graham and Chian Gong Howard and Ann Hendrix Kerry and Steve Incavo Judy and Sol Jacobson Kipp and Ellen Johnson Mark and Terri Messing Candice and Roger Moore Laura Reynolds Paula Sanders Terri and Ray Thomas Michael Webster and Leone Buyse

Sponsor ($500-$999) Carol and Charlie Burrus Rory Harris Rainer Hochhalter and Ronald Pummer David H. Lake Carol and Dan Price Renee Seale Allan Treiman

Friend ($25-$499) Ken Adam and Gayle Goodman Erin and Daniel Allison Jerry Baiamonte Daniel Baker William Baker Karen and Alan Beck Bonnie Bell Brandon Bell and Yvonne Chen Ann Bragdon and Karim Alkadhi Ken Bronstein Brian Bush Jay Chadwick Charlotte Chen-Tsai Amy Chung Darlene Clark Joanne Collier Joyce Meissert Dallam Karin Diaz Laura Dunaway

David Elbon Chalon Fontaine Isabelle Ganz Barbara and Mike Giordanelli Thomas Gower Roger and Sue Hochman Haley Houk Dana Jackson Svjetlana Kabalin Gary Kagawa Yuki Katayama Richard Killmer Emily Knaapen Marissa LaMoure Therese and Jay LaMoure Constance Lima William Martin Toby McEvoy Michael Muña

Paul Norris John Novotny Anne Pittman Janet Rarick and Ben Kamins Frank Rubottom Nancy Sellers Michael and Nancy Shand Timothy Skinner John Slaby Masahito Sugihara and Elizabeth Conley LeAnne Thurmond and Ed Holcombe Michele Tsai and Ty Owens Leah Tsamous Russell Wilson Nancy and Mark Wozny Perry Youngblood Joshua Zinn

Scan the QR code, or visit www.windsync.org/give to make your tax-deductible gift today!

Checks can be made payable to WindSync and sent to:

7215 Bayou Oaks Dr., Houston, TX 77088

GRANTS AND SPONSORSHIPS

WindSync’s 2024-2025 season is funded in part by the City of Houston through the Houston Arts Alliance and the Texas Commission on the Arts. WindSync thanks the Richard D. Huff Foundation Trust for generous continued support.

JOIN US FOR UPCOMING HOUSTON EVENTS

April 8-12, 2025 with Kinetic Ensemble and the Houston Youth Symphony Coda Music Program

fivexfive

Thursday, April 10, 2025 Midtown Arts and Theater Center Houston with Kinetic Ensemble 7:30 PM

UPCOMING TOUR DATES AND CITIES 3/10-11 3/13-14 3/16 3/18 3/22 4/3

Seattle, WA Portland, OR Grass Valley, CA Napa, CA Richland, WA Tryon, NC

4/4 4/6 5/3 5/4 5/25-30

Greensboro, NC Raleigh, NC Highland Park, IL Cheboygan, MI Shelter Island, NY

SUBSCRIBE TO OUR MAILING LIST AT WINDSYNC.ORG/CONTACT FOR EVENT ANNOUNCEMENTS.

www.windsync.org @windsync