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REALM
2024-2025 SEASON | SPRING
LETTER FROM THE ARTISTIC AND MUSIC DIRECTOR
Dear Friends,
Welcome to the Worthington Chamber Orchestra’s 20242025 season! As we embark on our 12th year, I feel immense pride and excitement in seeing how far we’ve come. What began as a small initiative has blossomed into a vibrant musical force, deeply woven into the fabric of the Worthington community.
This season, In Nature’s Realm, celebrates our journey and the growing bond between the orchestra and the community we serve. The WCO has expanded in both performance scope and programming, as well as in our connections with local artists and you—our loyal supporters. Your enthusiasm has fueled our growth, inspiring us to reach new heights.
We are thrilled to present a season that reflects our commitment to artistic excellence and community engagement. In collaboration with the Worthington Partnership’s “Green Team” and the Ohio Plein Air Society, we embrace the beauty of nature and foster environmental stewardship. The Benedicta Enrile Masterworks Series will transport you through changing seasons, glowing sunsets, and the majesty of the sea and mountains, while celebrating the connection between music, visual art, and nature.
But our evolution is not just about what we perform—it’s also about how we engage. This season, we proudly continue our Education and Family Series, offering opportunities for young people and families to experience the joy of live music. Programs like Peter and the Wolf with Hixon Dance and WorthingTunes: Kate and the Beanstalk, in partnership with Worthington Libraries, aim to spark curiosity and foster a lifelong love of music in the next generation.
As we begin this new season, I am incredibly grateful for the support of the WCO Board, staff, musicians, and, most of all, you. Your commitment has been vital to our journey, and I look forward to continuing our growth together. This season promises to celebrate not just music, but community, connection, and the beauty around us.
Thank you for being part of the Worthington Chamber Orchestra family. I am excited to share this remarkable season with you.
Warm regards,
Antoine T. Clark Artistic and Music Director Worthington Chamber Orchestra
SPRING EVENTS
Worthington
Sunday, May 4, 2025, 5:00
Worthington United Methodist Church
WorthingTunes:
Board of Trustees
Michael Ball, President
Darnell Perkins, Treasurer
Frank Shepherd, Secretary
Ben Cooper
Benedicta Enrile
Jennifer Hambrick
Bronwynn Hopton
Lori Overmyer
Lorraine Robinson
Ellen Stukenberg
Charlie Warner
Staff
Antoine T. Clark, Artistic and Music Director
Anne Zavaglia, Orchestra Manager
Daniel Hange, Production Manager
Tyler Norin, Conducting Apprentice
OUR MISSION
The mission of the Worthington Chamber Orchestra (WCO) is to support local artists while providing diverse and dynamic programming that entertains, inspires, and fosters music education. WCO cultivates relationships between artists and the Worthington community.
IN NATURE’S REALM
The Worthington Chamber Orchestra is thrilled to announce its 2024-2025 season under the leadership of founding artistic and music director, Antoine T. Clark. The 2024-2025 Benedicta Enrile Masterworks theme, In Nature’s Realm, celebrates the natural world in lush musical landscapes and vibrant visual art. The chamber orchestra is teaming up with Worthington Partnership’s “Green Team” to promote sustainability and to help Worthington become a more earth-conscious community. Through the “Let’s Grow Native, Worthington” initiative, WCO and the Green Team encourage native plantings throughout the city to better support our ecosystem. WCO performances throughout the season will feature paintings by members of the Ohio Plein Air Society.
The Benedicta Enrile Masterworks Series will include three concerts that celebrate the natural world:
Vivaldi and The Four Seasons: Experience Vivaldi’s The Four Seasons alongside Michael Abels’ More Seasons and Beethoven’s Symphony No. 6 (“Pastoral”), with violinist Aurelian Oprea and plein air artist Robin Roberts.
Debussy and Sunsets: Enjoy a serene evening featuring Debussy’s Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun, Rebecca Clarke’s Sonata for Viola and Orchestra, Ralph Vaughn Williams’ Serenade in A minor, and the world premiere of Korine Fujiwara’s Sunsets, Like Childhood, for string orchestra, with plein air artist Angela Gage.
Brahms, the Sea and Mountains: Be transported by the grandeur of nature with Britten’s Four Sea Interludes, Brahms’ Symphony No. 1, and Mountains Upon Mountains, Like Waves Upon Waves, featuring the Tower Duo and plein air artist Christopher Leeper.
The Education and Family Series features:
Peter and the Wolf with Hixon Dance: Witness a magical performance of Prokofiev’s Peter and the Wolf with choreography by Hixon Dance, under the direction of Sarah Hixon.
WorthingTunes: Engage young listeners with Kate and the Beanstalk, narrated by Jodi Langley in an interactive and delightful morning of music at the Old Worthington Library.
The 2024-2025 season, In Nature’s Realm, promises to be an unforgettable journey celebrating the beauty of our natural world. Through its diverse and dynamic programming, WCO continues its mission to entertain, inspire, and foster a deep connection between music, art, and the community. Join us for a season where music and nature unite to create an extraordinary experience.
WCO ARTISTIC / MUSIC DIRECTOR
Compelling interpretations, inventive performances, and an energetic stage presence are the hallmarks of American conductor Antoine T. Clark.
He is the founding Artistic and Music Director of the Worthington Chamber Orchestra in Ohio (formerly McConnell Arts Center Chamber Orchestra, established in 2013) and a passionate advocate for expanding access to classical music and fostering community engagement. Mr. Clark is the recipient of the Columbus Symphony’s 2024 Music Educator Award and the Greater Columbus Art Council’s 2024 Artists Elevated Award. In 2022, he served as Cincinnati Symphony’s MAC Music Innovator. The program, which highlights leading African American classical musicians who embody artistry, innovation, and commitment to education and community engagement, saw Clark leading chamber music and orchestral performances in schools and throughout the community during his residency.
In the 2024-2025 season, Mr. Clark embarks on his twelfth year with the Worthington Chamber Orchestra, leading the ensemble in a Masterworks series titled In Nature’s Realm. The series celebrates the natural world through lush musical landscapes and vibrant visual art, featuring collaborations with plein air painters from the Ohio Plein Air Society. The orchestra is also partnering with the Worthington Partnership’s “Green Team” on the “Let’s Grow Native, Worthington” initiative, which promotes sustainability and native plantings throughout the city to support local ecosystems. In addition to his work with the Chamber Orchestra, Mr. Clark will conduct Carl Orff’s Carmina Burana in collaboration with the Oyo Dance Company, serve as Orchestra Director and visiting Assistant Professor of Music at Denison University, and lead an MLK Celebration Concert with the Toledo Symphony in February 2025.
“Clark, who led from the podium with balletic poise.”
Mr. Clark is dedicated to building strong community relationships and creating bold programs featuring innovative collaborations with artists across various disciplines. His past projects have included working with sculptors, dancers, poets, and fiber artists. For the 2024-2025 season, he is collaborating with plein air painters from the Ohio Plein Air Society, reflecting his commitment to interdisciplinary creativity and engagement.
During the 2023-2024 season, Mr. Clark was appointed Associate Conductor of the Wheeling Symphony Orchestra after serving as Assistant Conductor. Fall 2023 saw guest conducting engagements with the South Carolina Philharmonic, a two-city New York tour with the Gateways Music Festival, performances with the Walla Walla Symphony, and the Lima Symphony’s New Year’s Eve concert. In the summer of 2024, he conducted the Juneteenth Festival Orchestra at UCLA.
Additional recent highlights include performances with the Spartanburg Philharmonic, Symphony Tacoma, Elgin Symphony Orchestra, New Jersey Symphony, and the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra. His past guest conducting engagements also include the Dayton Philharmonic, Richmond Symphony, and the Gateways Music Festival Orchestra. He has also conducted performances with the Vermont Symphony Orchestra and Opera Columbus.
Clark’s earlier professional posts include Assistant Conductor of the Chicago Sinfonietta, Assistant Conductor of the Gateways Music Festival Orchestra, Music Director of the Ohio Wesleyan University Chamber Orchestra, and Music Director of the Ohio Northern University Symphony. He has also served as a cover conductor for the Lancaster Festival Orchestra.
His work has garnered praise, including the Chicago Tribune’s recognition of his “balletic poise” during the premiere of Joel Thompson’s breathe/burn: an elegy with Chicago Sinfonietta.
- Chicago Tribune
Mr. Clark is deeply committed to enhancing music education and broadening its reach. He serves on the Columbus Symphony Orchestra’s Education Committee and as the Music Director and Conductor of the Northern Ohio Youth Orchestra’s Philharmonia Orchestra, which has been invited to perform at the 2025 Ohio Music Education Association conference. His educational work spans teaching students from young beginners to college music majors and leading initiatives that aim to increase access to music and engage diverse communities.
A frequent speaker on expanding opportunities within the arts, Clark has participated in panels and events with the International Conductors Guild, Chicago Sinfonietta, and the 2021 Youth Orchestras Online DEI panel, a collaboration between Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, Atlanta Symphony, and the Columbus Symphony Youth Orchestras. He has also contributed to the Washington Musical Pathway’s Workshop: Career in Music Panel and the Columbus Symphony Youth Orchestra’s Workshop Academy, collaborating with organizations to promote inclusive practices and foster a welcoming environment for all.
A strong advocate for new music, Mr. Clark regularly commissions works for the symphonic and chamber music repertoire. In the 2024-2025 season, he will premiere commissioned works by composers Korine Fujiwara and Evan Williams. He has previously worked with composers such as Mark Lomax II, Jacob Reed, Michael Rene Torres, Matthew Saunders, Christopher Weait, Linda Kernohan, Ching-chu Hu, and Vera Stanojević.
He was awarded Third Prize in the 2024 Los Angeles Conducting Workshop and Competition and has participated in numerous prestigious festivals, including the Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary Music and the Monteux School and Music Festival. He has also been a Project Inclusion Conducting Freeman Fellow with Chicago Sinfonietta.
ORCHESTRA PERSONNEL
First Violin
Devin Copfer, concertmaster
Benedicta Enrile Chair
Liz Fisher, assistant concertmaster
Lane Champa
Nia Dewberry
Pavana Stetzik
Anne Zavaglia
Second Violin
Ella Pittsford, principal
Nancy Elkington and Ted Dziemianowcz Chair
Nora Dukart
Sheila Santa
Joyce Green
Viola
Deborah Barrett Price, principal
Nancy Elkington and Ted Dziemianowcz Chair
Meagan Cramm
Rachel Tweedy
Norman Cardwell Murri
Cello
Jane Van Voorhis, principal
Lori and Don Overmyer Chair
Dan Comiskey
Ellen Stukenberg Chair
Amadeus Twu
Michelle Geissbuhler Chair
Double Bass
Aidan Terry, principal
Mick and Beth Ann Ball Chair
Merideth Eshelman
Flute
Erin Helgeson Torres, principal
Julie Dawson Chair
Katie Kuvin
Julie Dawson Chair
Amara Guitry
Piccolo
Katie Kuvin
Oboe
Brad Walsh, principal
William and Joyce Roberts Chair, In Honor of Robert
Owen Vegeler
Kelli Lawrence
English Horn
Michael Rueda
Clarinet
Nancy Gamso, principal
Charlie and Betsy Warner Chair
Bob Pfeifer
David and Bronwynn
Hopton Chair
Bassoon
Scott Hanratty, principal
Frank and Connie
Shepherd Chair
Emily Klepinger
Horn
Mitchell McCrady, principal
William Holderby II
Dan and Ginny Bryan Chair
Kaylyn Mallory
Jennifer Moncrief
Trumpet
Dale Nawrocki, principal
Carolyn Harding Chair
In Honor of Worthington Old Growth Oak Groves
Sarah Grosse
Timpani
Ben Shaheen, principal
Linda Royalty Chair
Percussion
Sam Sherer
David and Lorraine
Robinson Chair
Celesta
Suzanne Newcomb, principal
James C. Bieber Chair
Harp
Shayla Werner, principal
Tiffany Jones
A huge thank you to our Chair Sponsors who have made this season possible. If you are interested in sponsoring a chair, please contact us at worthingtonchamberorchestra@gmail.com.
2024-2025 BENEDICTA ENRILE MASTERWORKS SERIES
In Nature’s Realm
Debussy and Sunsets
Sunday, February 2, 2025, 5 pm
Worthington United Methodist Church
Antoine T. Clark, conductor
Korine Fujiwara, viola and composer
Angela Gage, plein air artist
PROGRAM
Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun (1894) Claude Debussy (1862-1918)
Sonata for Viola and Orchestra (1919)
Rebecca Clarke (1886-1979) Orchestrated by Ruth Lomon (1930-2017)
I. Impetuoso
II. Vivace
III. Adagio–Allegro
Korine Fujiwara, viola
INTERMISSION
Sunsets, Like Childhood (2024)
Korine Fujiwara (world premiere)
Serenade in A minor (1898) Ralph Vaughan Williams (1872-1958)
I. Prelude
II. Scherzo
III. Intermezzo and Trio
IV. Romance
V. Finale
PROGRAM NOTES
Claude Debussy
Born August 22, 1862, St. Germain-en-Laye: Died March 25, 1918, Paris
Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun
In 1887, Debussy joined the Tuesday evening gatherings of les Mardistes, a group of France’s finest intellectuals who met to discuss arts, literature, and philosophy at the home of the Symbolist poet Stéphane Mallarmé. The meetings would have a long-lasting impact on Debussy, whose music was deeply influenced by the group’s artistic innovations. Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun was based on Mallarmé’s poem L’Après-midi d’un faune, which was written between 1865 and 1867 and published in 1876. Mallarmé thought of his poem as intensely dramatic, declaring to his friend Henri Cazalis: “This poem…is not a work that may conceivably be given in the theater; it demands the theater.” Debussy likely conceived Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun as incidental music meant to accompany a reading of Mallarmé’s text. “The music of this prelude is a very free illustration of Mallarmé’s beautiful poem,” Debussy wrote, “By no means does it claim to be a synthesis of it. Rather there is a succession of scenes through which pass the desires and dreams of the faun in the heat of the afternoon.” Mallarmé was initially displeased with his poem being used as the basis for music, but was won over by Debussy’s exceptional interpretation, writing that Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun was a “marvel…which presents no dissonance with my text, but goes much further, really, into nostalgia and into light, with finesse, with sensuality, with richness.” Audiences at the premiere on December 22, 1894, in Paris agreed, and Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun was a major success. The main character of Mallarmé’s poem is a faun – a mythological half goat, half man – who wakes from his nap on a warm afternoon and reflects lazily on his memories of an amorous encounter with some flirtatious nymphs. He tries to figure out if his memories were real or simply a dream, but drifts off to sleep again without reaching a conclusion. Debussy’s score imitates Mallarmé’s poetic style through flexible rhythms, tonal ambiguity, and atmospheric tone colors, employing evocative orchestral sonorities ideally suited to the pastoral landscape of the faun’s passionate reverie.
Rebecca Clarke
Born August 27, 1886, Harrow: Died October 13, 1979, New York
Orchestrated by Ruth Lomon (1930-2017)
Sonata for Viola and Orchestra
When Clarke moved to the United States in 1916, she quickly developed a network of important, well-connected friends. One of these was Elizabeth Sprague Coolidge, who, in 1919, invited Clarke to submit a piece to a composition competition at Coolidge’s chamber music festival in the Berkshires in western Massachusetts. The competition was anonymous and the judges would not know the gender of the participants, so Coolidge felt that it was a good chance for Clarke to stand apart from her male colleagues. Clarke’s entry joined seventy-three other pieces to be examined by six esteemed judges, resulting in a tie between Ernest Bloch’s Suite for Viola and Clarke’s Viola Sonata. Coolidge’s tie-breaking vote went to Bloch, but the judges insisted on knowing the name of the composer that took second place. “You should have seen their faces when they saw it was by a woman!” Coolidge reported smugly. Coolidge went on to program the Viola Sonata during the festival, where it received its premiere
with violist Louis Bailly and pianist Harold Bauer on September 25, 1919. The Viola Sonata displays incredible talent, showcasing Clarke’s exceptional compositional skills. Since she was a professional violist as well, the piece highlights the best qualities of the instrument, taking advantage of its unique timbral and technical characteristics. As her inspiration, Clarke drew on two lines from the poem La Nuit de Mai written by the nineteenth-century French poet Alfred de Musset: “Poète, prends ton luth; le vin de la jeunesse fermente cette nuit dans les veines de Dieu.”
(Poet, pick up your lute; The wine of youth ferments tonight in the veins of God.)
The expansive first movement drifts along with hints of folk songs blended into dream-like passages, while the second movement is a sprightly dance colored by the use of harmonics and pizzicato sections. The third movement is pensive and ends with an explosive display of technical feats. Ruth Lomon’s orchestration brought the Viola Sonata to a new era of listeners during its premiere at St. Paul’s Music Festival in 2007. Information can be found at: Ruth Lomon (www.ruthlomon.com) and The Rebecca Clarke Society, Inc. (www.rebeccaclarke.org).
Korine Fujiwara
Sunsets, Like Childhood
Sunsets, Like Childhood was originally conceived as a string quartet and was commissioned by Chamber Music Columbus in honor of the organization’s 75th anniversary. It received its premiere in Columbus, Ohio, on February 18, 2023, performed by the Callisto Quartet. Today’s concert presents the premiere of an arrangement of the piece for orchestra commissioned by the Worthington Chamber Orchestra. Fujiwara’s idea for Sunsets, Like Childhood came from a quote from the 2007 book The Gift by American author Richard Paul Evans. He wrote: “Sunsets, like childhood, are viewed with wonder not just because they are beautiful but because they are fleeting.” Fujiwara particularly loves sunsets, especially as subject for photography, so she was immediately inspired by Evans’s statement. She wanted Sunsets, Like Childhood to be, as she described it, an “audio painting of a sunset,” but quickly realized the impossibility of creating a musical representation of a sunset’s appearance since the color, texture, and depth will vary greatly from day to day. Instead, she set out to compose a piece of music that could portray the individual experience of watching a sunset, merging celebratory moments with contemplative visions and an overall sense of tranquility. While describing the genesis of the piece from the stage at the 2023 performance, Fujiwara explained that Sunsets, Like Childhood was meant to express a similar energy to the sunrise. “At the end of the day,” she said, “another celebration where the birds go crazy and the sky lights up in reds and oranges…and the pink shines and reflects off the mountains – if you’re lucky enough to have mountains to reflect off of. And it brings me so much joy to see that, that show and that display.” She expands further on her Soundcloud page: “Taking a moment every day to capture the sunset sky painted in glorious colors is an easy way to enjoy one of life’s free gifts. In Sunsets, Like Childhood I’ve tried to capture that explosion of color in music. Dedicated to those who, instead of always running from the inevitable, have chosen to run towards life. Chase the sunsets.”
Ralph Vaughan Williams
Born October 12, 1872, Down Ampney: Died August 26, 1958, London
Serenade for Small Orchestra in A minor
Vaughan Williams likely composed the Serenade in A minor between 1897 and 1898, but was still working on it in 1899, possibly making revisions suggested by his composition teacher from the Royal College of Music, Charles Villiers Stanford. As work progressed, Vaughan Williams described the piece in letters to his good friend and classmate Gustav Holst. “I have written a new Coda & a new movement for my Serenade,” he happily reported in late 1899. He also told Holst about his “final talk with Stanford” in which “we agreed that if I added a short movement in E major in the middle & altered the Coda the thing might stand.” The thing – that being the Serenade in A minor – did seem to earn Stanford’s approval. He called it “a most poetical and remarkable piece of work” and conducted it in three rehearsals in December of 1899, but then inexplicably never programmed it, leaving Vaughan Williams to hunt for a new performance opportunity. After some searching, the premiere of the Serenade in A minor was given by the Bournemouth Municipal Orchestra in April of 1901. This appears to have been the only performance of the Serenade in A minor in the composer’s lifetime. It was not published until 2012.
The Serenade in A minor follows in the footsteps of serenades popularized by Brahms and Dvořák in the nineteenth century, which generally had three to five short movements, were light in character, and conservative in their use of harmonic and formal elements. Dvořák’s influence on Vaughan Williams was especially prominent, prompting the composer’s wife to write to a friend that “Ralph…is writing a new Serenade for orchestra which is turning out very Dvořák-y…” The arpeggiated motif that opens the first movement, Prelude, sets the tone for a series of loosely organized variations of somber character. The Scherzo starts with hunting calls in the brass that become a rollicking country dance. The stately central movement, Intermezzo & Trio, moves forward gracefully over falling pizzicato scales. The fantasia-like Romance combines murmuring strings, long-breathed phrases, bird calls, and pastoral reminiscences with a lyricism that points to Vaughan Williams’s future symphonic masterworks. Finally, the fifth movement is a boisterous march with a martial rondo theme.
- Heike Hoffer
HEIKE HOFFER | PROGRAM NOTES AUTHOR
Heike Hoffer completed a Master’s degree in Oboe Performance at the University of Minnesota in 2002 and then accepted a full-time position in the Music Department at the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley, where she taught music history and oboe for five years. She resumed her graduate studies in 2009, receiving a Master’s degree in Musicology from the University of Arizona and then entered The Ohio State University to pursue a Ph.D. in Musicology. After moving to Japan in 2015 to conduct dissertation research, she completed her Ph.D. at OSU in 2022 with a thesis on the use of Beethoven’s Ode to Joy melody as part of anime’s musical score and possible interpretations of this music by Japanese viewers. Her research interests focus primarily on the relationship between Western classical music and anime in terms of the cultural landscape of modern Japan, and she has published articles on the subject in both major international presses and prominent
academic journals. Today, Heike lives in Tokyo with her husband, where they watch all of the latest anime and work together on various academic projects.
KORINE FUJIWARA | VIOLA AND COMPOSER
Violist Korine Fujiwara is a founding member of the Carpe Diem String Quartet, a devoted and sought-after chamber musician and teacher, and a gifted composer and arranger. She is Professor of Violin and Viola at Pacific Lutheran University after having served for many years on the music faculty of Ohio Wesleyan University. Named as one of Strings Magazine’s “25 Contemporary Composers to Watch,” Ms. Fujiwara has received multiple commissions, including works for opera, chamber ensembles, chorus, concerti, and music for modern dance, which have been performed throughout the United States, Canada, Great Britain, Italy, Switzerland, Spain, The Netherlands, Australia, China, and Japan. Fanfare Magazine remarked on Ms. Fujiwara’s music, “The ear is forever tickled by beautifully judged music that manages to be sophisticated and accessible at the same time.” Her musical language encompasses a wide range of influences, including classical, folk, jazz, and rock and roll.
Ms. Fujiwara is a gifted performer on both the violin and viola and holds degrees from The Juilliard School and Northwestern University. Korine performed for many seasons with ProMusica Chamber Orchestra of Columbus and was a member of the Columbus Symphony Orchestra for 18 years. Korine performs on a 1790 Contreras violin and 2004 Kurt Widenhouse viola and bows by three of today’s finest makers, Paul Martin Siefried, Ole Kanestrom, and Charles Espey, all of Port Townsend, WA, USA.
When not performing, practicing, composing, or teaching, Korine enjoys playing with her dogs, hiking, geocaching, anything chocolate, and searching for her next favorite books and movies.
ANGELA GAGE | PLEIN AIR ARTIST
Angela Gage was born and raised in Columbus, Ohio. She has lived on the north side for most of her life and graduated from Northland High School. Ms. Gage pursued her art interest for a number of years by attending the Columbus College of Art and Design on a fine arts scholarship. She has taught art for almost 27 years at several Central Ohio cultural art centers. Ms. Gage also works on portrait commissions and offers private lessons in her Galena home studio.
Between jobs and teaching she enjoys oil painting and working with pastels. Ms. Gage is a member of the Ohio Plein Air Society and the Ohio Pastel Art League. She has entered numerous competitions nationwide and received awards in oil painting, pastels, and miniatures.
In Nature’s Realm
Brahms, the Sea and Mountains
Sunday, May 4, 2025, 5 pm
Worthington United Methodist Church
Antoine T. Clark, conductor
Tower Duo:
Erin Helgeson Torres, flute
Michael Rene Torres, saxophone
Christopher Leeper, plein air artist
PROGRAM
Interludes from Peter Grimes, Op. 33a (1945)
I. Dawn: Lento e tranquillo
II. Sunday Morning: Allegro spiritoso
III. Moonlight: Andante comodo e rubato
IV. Storm: Presto con fuoco
Benjamin Britten (1913-1976)
Mountains Upon Mountains, Like Waves Upon Waves (2024) Evan Williams (consortium premiere)
I. Waves
II. Mountains
Erin Helgeson Torres, flute
Michael Rene Torres, saxophone
INTERMISSION
Symphony No. 1 in C minor, Op. 68 (1876)
I. Un poco sostenuto — Allegro — Meno Allegro
II. Andante sostenuto
III. Un poco allegretto e grazioso
Johannes Brahms (1833-1897)
IV. Adagio — Più Andante — Allegro non troppo, ma con brio – Più Allegro
PROGRAM NOTES
Benjamin Britten
Born November 22, 1913, Lowestoft: Died December 4, 1976, Aldeburgh Four Sea Interludes from Peter Grimes, Op. 33a
Britten and his lifelong partner tenor Peter Pears arrived in the United States in 1939 after fleeing Europe as conscientious objectors of World War II. A few years later, the pair happened to read an article about the life and works of the eighteenth-century Suffolk poet George Crabbe. Britten was intrigued and bought a copy of Crabbe’s extended narrative poem The Borough in a local second-hand shop, a decision that would prove to be life-changing for the composer. “In a flash, I realized two things,” said Britten, “that I must write an opera, and where I belonged.” Resolved to return to England, Britten and Pears boarded a ship for the long voyage back to their home country in 1942. On the way, they drafted the scenario for what would become Britten’s operatic masterpiece Peter Grimes. In Crabbe’s poem, fisherman Peter Grimes is a sadistic man who lives in a small village where he systematically murders his innocent young apprentices, but Britten and Pears opted for a more sympathetic interpretation of Grimes as an outcast in an intolerant society, both a product and a victim of his own community. According to Pears, Grimes was “an ordinary, weak person who, being at odds with the society in which he finds himself, tries to overcome it and, in doing so, offends against the conventional code, is classed by society as a criminal, and destroyed as such. There are plenty of Grimeses around still, I think!”
Peter Grimes had its premiere on June 7, 1945, at London’s Sadler’s Wells Theatre and was a huge success. Throughout the opera, six interlude pieces for orchestra are heard during scene changes, offering a nuanced perspective of the narrative that expands upon what is communicated through the sung text. In particular, the interludes establish the character of the ocean itself and its constant presence in the lives of the villagers as a source of food and income but also danger and even death. To create the Four Sea Interludes, Britten extracted four interludes from the opera and refashioned them into an orchestral suite. In Dawn, a misty early morning sea waits for the fishermen to begin their day. The orchestra is divided into three sets: flutes and violins with a haunting melody, majestic chordal swells in the brass, and the harp, violas, and clarinets with fluttering arpeggios. Sunday Morning opens with the horns imitating church bells as the flute mimics chirping birds. The sea is peaceful as people hurry to the church for the weekly service. Moonlight gives the impression of a relaxed summer evening with its sighing melody in the orchestra. The flute, trumpets, xylophone, and harp continue to interject and disturb the mood, hinting at an unstable future. Finally, Storm is frenzied as torrential rain drives the villagers inside to escape the tempest. Grimes envisions his future with dream-like flourishes in the orchestra as the chaos continues outside.
Evan
Williams
Mountains Upon Mountains, Like Waves Upon Waves
The music of Evan Williams reflects a diverse group of musical influences. Ranging from popular forms such as jazz, pop, and rock to Western classical styles and practices from electronic music, Williams particularly enjoys the process of linking disparate musical approaches, allowing each to imbue the resulting piece with its own distinctive expressive characteristics. As Williams writes in his online bio, his music
“explores the thin lines between beauty and disquiet, joy and sorrow, and simple and complex, while often tackling important social and political issues.”
Mountains Upon Mountains, Like Waves Upon Waves premiered on April 6, 2024, with the Lima Symphony Orchestra. The piece featured, and was written for, the Tower Duo, a contemporary flute and saxophone duet based in Columbus, Ohio, as part of a special commission that included the Lima Symphony, Westerville Symphony, and Worthington Chamber Orchestra. Heard in two movements, Mountains Upon Mountains, Like Waves Upon Waves captures the expansive beauty of mountain ranges, with snow-capped peaks that extend as far as the eye can see. The first movement, Waves, opens with rippling statements in the soloists that are echoed in the woodwinds, reminiscent of waves spreading across the water. The echo-like ripples broaden into the full orchestra and influence the soloists as they play off each other’s lines, all contributing to the majestic view of the limitless mountains. The second movement, Mountains, is a kind of perpetual motion. There is a feeling of flying over, around, and between the dizzying mountaintops while the sheer size and grandeur of the scenery unfolds in the rich orchestral textures. The final bars seem like a glance over the shoulder, a final view of the landscape that the music has so marvelously presented.
As Williams wrote in his program note from 2024: “Mountains Upon Mountains, Like Waves Upon Waves is inspired by my fascination with mountains, specifically mountain ranges. Growing up in the plains of the American Midwest, seeing these majestic formations was a rarity, until I began spending more time, and eventually moved to the Northeast. Upon arriving in the Northeast, I would sometimes sit and stare at these mountain ranges, and noticed how they looked like ripples of greenwater — mountains upon mountains, like the waves upon waves of the ocean or my native Lake Michigan. However, these waves were immovable, like the waves in the woodblock prints of Japanese artist Katsushika Hokusai, particularly the famous The Great Wave of Kanagawa. This concerto for flute and saxophone seeks to evoke the sense of awe, power, and fear of the Hokusai print, along with the sense of peace that I now find in mountains.”
Johannes Brahms
Born May 7, 1833, Hamburg: Died April 3, 1897, Vienna Symphony No. 1 in C minor, Op. 68
Brahms was viewed as Beethoven’s musical successor even from the earliest days of his professional career, leaving the composer with a feeling of hopelessness. “I will never write a symphony!,” he wrote to his friend Hermann Levi. “You will never know how it feels to hear the tramp of a giant like Beethoven behind you.” Brahms was not the only composer to be compared to Beethoven, every German Romantic composer was burdened with trying to live up to Beethoven’s lofty image, but Brahms was thought to have the most potential of all to serve as Beethoven’s artistic heir, especially when it came to the symphony, the ultimate test of a composer’s musical skill. Brahms’s twenties passed, then his thirties, and when he reached his forties, colleagues and friends began to despair that no symphony would ever be forthcoming. Schumann complained to their mutual friend Joachim: “But where is Johannes? Is he not yet ready to let drums and trumpets sound?” Brahms’s publisher Simrock wrote to him in desperation: “Aren’t you doing anything more? Am I not to have a symphony from you in ’73 either?” Even the critic Eduard Hanslick admitted that “seldom, if ever, has the entire musical world awaited a composer’s first symphony with such tense anticipation.”
Brahms had actually been working a symphony since 1854, but had repurposed the material as the first two movements of his First Piano Concerto and part of the German Requiem. Then in 1862, Brahms sent a letter to his close friend Clara Schumann containing the first movement of a new symphony and asking for her opinion. Clara was stunned and wrote to Joachim: “The other day Johannes sent me – imagine my surprise! – the first movement of a symphony…The movement is full of wonderful beauties, and the themes are treated with a mastery that is becoming more and more characteristic of him. It is all interwoven in a most interesting fashion and at the same time it bursts forth absolutely spontaneously. One enjoys it in great drafts without being reminded of all the work there is in it.” Brahms would take another decade to complete the First Symphony, finishing it in 1876. The long-awaited premiere took place in Karlsruhe on November 4 of that year. It was hailed by many as “The Tenth,” suggesting that Brahms had picked up where Beethoven had left off.
The first movement opens with formidable intensity of Beethovenian proportions. The driving introduction presents the themes that will be explored more thoroughly in the main body of the movement through Brahms’s ingenious series of rhythmic, dynamic, harmonic, and timbral transformations. The second movement offers a welcome change with its lyricism and gentle touch, followed by a refined Allegretto epitomized by simplicity and dance-like grace. The finale opens with a slow introduction that grows increasingly turbulent. A hymn-like tune emerges that many audience members felt was similar to the Ode to Joy from Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony, a resemblance Brahms acknowledged with the comment “any ass can see that.” Brahms himself described the First Symphony as “long and not exactly lovable,” but the enduring affection the piece enjoys today proves that it is very lovable indeed.
- Heike Hoffer
EVAN WILLIAMS | COMPOSER
Drawing from inspirations as diverse as Medieval chant to contemporary pop, the music of composer and conductor Evan Williams explores the thin lines between beauty and disquieting, joy and sorrow, and simple and complex while often tackling important social and political issues. Williams’ catalog contains a broad range of work, from vocal and operatic offerings to instrumental works, along with electronic music.
His music has been performed and commissioned by the International Contemporary Ensemble, Urban Playground Chamber Orchestra, Quince Ensemble, American Brass Quintet, and by the Cincinnati, Toledo, Detroit, Seattle, and National Symphonies. He has received performances at festivals such as MATA, RED NOTE, the New Music Gathering, Strange Beautiful Music, SEAMUS, and the New York City Electronic Music Festival.
Williams has received awards and recognition from the American Prize, the National Federation of Music Clubs, ASCAP, Fellowships from the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, and served as the Detroit Symphony Orchestra’s inaugural Classical Roots Composer-in-Residence in 2018. He currently serves as Composer-inResidence for the Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia.
Williams holds a DMA in Composition with a cognate in Orchestral Conducting from the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music, where he served as a
teaching assistant in electronic music. He also holds degrees from Bowling Green State University and Lawrence University.
Originally from the Chicagoland area, Williams resides in Boston, MA, and serves as Assistant Professor of Composition at the Berklee College of Music, where he teaches composition, conducting, music technology, harmony, and counterpoint.
TOWER DUO | FLUTE AND SAXOPHONE
Based in Columbus, Ohio, the contemporary music flute and saxophone duet Tower Duo (flutist Erin Helgeson Torres and saxophonist Michael Rene Torres) has been performing together since 2007 and focuses on the music of living composers. Tower Duo’s performances are innovative and narrative-driven, often exploring improvisation, multi-media, and collaboration with other arts. The duo has since performed all across the United States at schools, conferences, arts venues, and festivals, including artist residencies at several universities (30+). Highlights include the Omaha Chamber Music Society’s Eko Nova series, the Cleveland Uncommon Sound Project’s Re:Sound New Music Festival, the Brevard Music Center Festival and Institute, Blue Lake Fine Arts Camp, the Society of Composers, Inc. conferences, North American Saxophone Alliance conferences, as well as guests artist appearances during the contemporary music festivals of Northwestern University, The Ohio State University, Ball State University, and Capital University.
Tower Duo recently recorded their debut album, Crosswind, which features the duo’s favorite collaborations with composers from the first decade of their artistic work. Ravello Records released Crosswind under the PARMA Recordings label.
Erin serves as principal flutist of the Worthington Chamber Orchestra and the Lima Symphony Orchestra. Michael teaches saxophone and composition as Assistant Teaching Professor of Music at The Ohio State University. He is also the founder and artistic director of the Columbus Ohio Discovery Ensemble (CODE). The two live in Columbus with their retired racer rescue greyhound, Arwen. www.erinhelgesontorres.weebly.com www.michaelrenetorres.weebly.com
CHRISTOPHER LEEPER | PLEIN AIR ARTIST
Christopher Leeper (Canfield, OH) is a realist painter and workshop instructor painting in all mediums.
He wrote and illustrated the book Realism in Watermedia, (North Light). He has illustrated four children’s books for the Smithsonian and African Wildlife Foundation. His work has been featured in The Artist’s Magazine, Plein Air Magazine, Watercolor Magic and Ohio Magazine
His work has been shown in galleries and museums around the country. He also, participates frequently in national juried and invitational exhibitions and plein air events.
He graduated from Youngstown State University (YSU) in 1988 with a BFA degree in graphic design. He was an adjunct faculty member of the YSU Art Department for 22 years. He is past president of the Ohio Watercolor Society and is a signature member of the National Oil and Acrylic Painters’ Society. He is a current board member of the Ohio Plein Air Society.
EDUCATION AND FAMILY SERIES
WorthingTunes
Saturday, April 12, 2025, 10:00 am Old Worthington Library
Antoine T. Clark, conductor
Jodi Langley, narrator
PROGRAM
Kate and the Beanstalk
Jennifer Bernard Merkowitz
Jodi Langley, narrator
Based on the book, Kate and the Beanstalk, written by Mary Pope Osborne (text © 2000), illustrated by Giselle Potter (illustrations © 2000). Text used with permission of Brandt & Hochman Literary Agents, Inc. All rights reserved.
JODI LANGLEY | NARRATOR
Jodi Langley has been a youth services librarian with Worthington Libraries since 2019. She loves reading books of all sorts, but from Chrysanthemum by Kevin Henkes to Kate DiCamillo’s The Tale of Despereaux, books about brave and kind mice have always been her favorite!
to attract butterflies + beneficial insects to reduce maintenance ∙ for water conservation to aid in carbon sequestration
The Worthington Partnership Green Team is very pleased to partner with the Worthington Chamber Orchestra for the upcoming season focused on nature.
The Green Team’s focus is on ways to support the natural world that is so critical to our planet with actions such as managing our waste and supporting life native to our ecosystem.
As you can see from this heading, one of our current initiatives is to expand the footprint of native plants being grown in Worthington.
The Why? on our heading describes some of the many services provided by native plants that help with problems in our ecosystem today.
We hope to engage as many Worthington residents as possible by sharing information about the importance of native plants and how to get started in your own yard.
We are currently developing a baseline of the land in Worthington that has already incorporated native plants in the landscape.
Are you familiar with the value native plants bring to our ecosystem? Do you live in Worthington? Do you have some native plants or trees on your property?
Would you like help knowing if you do? Would you like to learn how to get started?
Please contact us if you would like to learn about the Worthington Pollinator Pathway and help us connect properties that support pollinators.
Angela’s oil painting Whispers of the Faun painted for Debussy’s Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun and Korine Fujiwara’s Sunsets, Like Childhood captures the delicate intersection of childhood innocence and the mystical beauty of nature. Angela has used her granddaughter as a reference and painted her as a faun embodying the playful spirit and ancient ethereal qualities of the mythical creature.
The soft glow of a sunset with its warm hues of yellow, gold and amber fill the scene evoking a sense of nostalgia and wonder. The birch trees with their slender trunks create a tranquil backdrop and echo the dreamlike quality of Debussy’s music.
Like the music that inspired this painting, it takes us to a place where we can escape to a world where pure childhood exists in harmony with the artistry of the landscape.
Whispers of the Faun by Angela Gage
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