Yale Concert Band - Feb 26, 2022 - "The Planets"

Yale Concert Band Thomas C. Duffy, Music Director presents

The Planets Gustav Holst

(arr. Christian Janssen) with new projections by

Camilla Tassi ’22 and John Horzen ’24

David Geffen School of Drama at Yale University and original visual art by

Mikayla Johnson Yale College SY ’24 with special guest

The Elm City Girls’ Choir

Rebecca Rosenbaum, Music Director

Saturday, February 26, 2022, at 7:30 p.m.

Woolsey Hall 500 College Street, New Haven Free Admission

illustration by Mikayla Johnson’24

About the Projections

by Camilla Tassi and John Horzen, Projection Designers They are most commonly thought of as celestial bodies in our solar system, but what are “The Planets” really about? Each planet in Holst’s most popular work is named after a Roman god, and each movement – from ‘Mars: The Bringer of War’ to ‘Neptune: The Mystic”– is imbued with an aspect of the human experience.

Holst’s The Planets was originally composed as a seven-movement work for orchestra, written between 1914 and 1917. In the Yale Concert Band’s programming of this work, we already experience a new take on the suite with a transcription for band by Christian Janssen. In this partnership between the Yale Concert Band and School of Drama projection designers, we take a further step by providing an audiovisual interpretation to the narrative, cemented in the work’s aural storytelling. As the visual/aural dialogue began, we were drawn to associating specific art styles and techniques with each movement — each one with its own unique visual character and approach. In addition, we were moved to work with the architecture of the hall itself as the surface, almost as if the music summons the medium of projection itself into the space.

In the first movement, Mars ‘the Bringer of War,’ depictions of war are explored through the lens of 19th century painting. Overlays and moving images supplement contemporary conceptions of war and conflict.

This is immediately followed by Venus, ‘the Bringer of Peace.’ This aesthetic was inspired by the French impressionist painting technique and palette, which proved itself to be a welcome home for its themes of romance and passion.

Mercury, ‘the Messenger’ contemplates communication and how messages have been sent over the years, a story told in the style of sketches and hand-written letters.

Jupiter, ‘the bringer of Jollity’ focuses on the thrill of human innovation and achievement.

Through the medium of photography, these topics are explored in full color and definition, only then to be brought to something beyond these human-made achievements: the light of creativity and creation. We are then immersed in the beauty and majesty of the natural world, a world that is essential to our existence and surpasses human construction.

Saturn, ‘the Bringer of Old Age’ shifts from the grandeur of Jupiter into something far more intimate and reflective. The medium of black and white photography centers the individual’s experience near the end of life, isolation, and the passage of time.

Uranus, ‘the ‘Magician’ is a delightful departure from the realistic imagery of the previous two movements.

Its seriousness and playfulness are highlighted through the geometry and color of the German Bauhaus movement.

‘Neptune, ‘the Mystic.’ Our final planet. Throughout the evening, many different mediums and art styles were explored, some of them particularly Euro-centric (the continent Holst called home). As we move beyond Earth’s bounds and explore the vast unknown beyond our humble solar system, our team wished to invite a visual artist from our community to contribute to the final chapter. Yale College student and visual artist Mikayla Johnson was commissioned to create art in response to this contemplative movement, and the result is a meditation on humanity, divinity, and reflection.

YALE CONCERT BAND

About Tonight’s Artists Camilla Tassi is a projection/video designer, producer, and musician from Florence, Italy. With backgrounds in computer science and classical voice, her design credits include Monteverdi’s L’Orfeo (Apollo’s Fire), Pollock’s Stinney: An American Execution (PROTOTYPE, NYC), Tesori’s Fun Home (Yale School of Drama), Glass’s The Fall of the House of Usher (Mass MoCA), Mozart’s Magic Flute (Berlin Opera Academy), and Vivaldi’s Four Seasons (Dartmouth Symphony). Tassi enjoys bringing theatrical design to traditionally unstaged compositions, recontextualizing the repertoire with today’s social reality and audiences. For video, she has designed, filmed, and edited programs for groups such as the Cramer Quartet, Washington Chorus, Les Délices Early Music, Princeton Festival, and Chicago Ear Taxi Festival. She translates Italian libretti and sings with the Yale Schola Cantorum at Yale, where she is pursuing an MFA in Projection Design. https://www.camillatassi.com/.

Originally from Orlando (FL), John Horzen graduated Vanderbilt University with a bachelor’s degree in Violin performance in 2020 and is now pursuing a master’s degree in Design at the Yale School of Drama. His specializations in technology, music, and theater have resulted in a lifelong fascination with interdisciplinary art. That fascination has led to a significant number of interesting projects, including the Hamilton Flashmob @ VU, a TEDx talk focused around technology-augmented performance, co-directing the 2019 Chamber 2.0 Experience at the University of Maryland, and winning top prize at the 2021 Opera Hack Festival with fellow designer, Camilla Tassi.

Mikayla Johnson is a junior in Yale College majoring in Theater and Ethnicity, Race, and Migration. An actor and visual artist, Mikayla can be found eating at inappropriate times, changing hairstyles every other week, or with too many tabs open on her Wbrowser. Mikayla thanks Camilla and John for bringing him on to illustrate this project! More of his work can be found at @mik.niche on Instagram.

ELM CITY GIRLS’ CHOIR

REBECCA ROSENBAUM and TOM BRAND, Music Directors

Emily Alletzhauser* Emma Blair Chloé Chauvot de Beauchene Emily D`Souza Rachel Genn Virginia Taylor Grabovsky Amara Greenshpun Natalie Houlton Violet Willcox Johnson Aurelia Mae Keberle Eleanor Lee Miriam Elizabeth Levenson Rori McCarthy

Nora McDonough** Linda Nelson Ameya Tanvi Patel** Rosaly Abigail Ramos-Reyes** Gillian Regan Audrey Rivetta Adrianne Theresa Mary Shields** Moriah Thomas Helena Titus Kaelin Vasseur Ursula June Zebrowski *President **United Girls’ Choir guest

The Elm City Girls’ Choir (ECGC) has earned a reputation as one of America’s finest youth choirs. Founded in 1993, ECGC is an elite program, which provides unique performance opportunities and conservatory-level training in vocal technique, musicianship, and conducting for choristers of prodigious talent. ECGC has performed at Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, and Walt Disney World, and has recorded with artists including Yale Schola Cantorum, The Whiffenpoofs of Yale, Peter Eldridge, and the New Haven Symphony Orchestra. The group has appeared on live national television with Diana Ross and has completed concert tours of Italy, England, Canada, Mexico, and China.

Choristers of The Elm City Girls’ Choir collaborate closely with members of the United Choir School faculty and play essential leadership roles in the organization. Each member of ECGC attends two weekly rehearsals in New Haven plus one or more rehearsals with United Girls’ Choir ensembles for which she serves as a Teaching Assistant and/or Student Conductor.

ECGC is open by invitation to choristers of extraordinary talent who have completed at least one year in the UGC Mentor Program and have demonstrated outstanding musical leadership and exemplary citizenship.

YALE CONCERT BAND

Upcoming Yale Bands Performances • Monday, March 7, 2022: Yale Jazz Ensemble Big Band, Wayne Escoffery, Music Director. Celebrating the Centennial of Charles Mingus. Feat. Nostalgia in Times Square, Good Bye Pork Pie Hat, Moanin’, and more.

7:30 p.m., Morse Recital Hall in Sprague Memorial Hall. Free admission, but required tickets available here: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/266416909147.

• Thursday, April 14, 2022: Yale Concert Band Spring Concert. Thomas C. Duffy, Music Director. Celebrating Forty Years of Music by Thomas C. Duffy. Part 1. 7:30 p.m., Woolsey Hall. Free admission, but tickets are required. Ticketing link will be posted on the Yale Bands Calendar: https://bands.yalecollege.yale.edu/calendar.

• Sunday, April 24, 2022: Yale Concert Band Spring Concert. Thomas C. Duffy, Music Director. Celebrating Forty Years of Music by Thomas C. Duffy. Part 2. 2:00 p.m., Woolsey Hall. Free admission, but tickets are required. Ticketing link will be posted on the Yale Bands Calendar: https://bands.yalecollege.yale.edu/calendar.

Current Audience Policy. Per Yale University COVID-19 guidelines, in-person concert attendance at Yale Bands performances is open to aymptomatic patrons with an up-to-date vaccination status. Up-to-date means a person has received all recommended COVID-19 vaccines for their age range, including any booster doses when eligible. Guests will be required to show proof of vaccination and a matching photo ID at the door. Other individuals are invited to view the live stream at https://bands. yalecollege.yale.edu/listen-yale-bands-0. Audience permissions are subject to change.

About the Music Director Thomas C. Duffy (b. 1955) is Professor (Adjunct) of Music and Director of University Bands at Yale University, where he has worked since 1982. He has established himself as a composer, a conductor, a teacher, an administrator, and a leader. His interests and research range from nontonal analysis to jazz, from wind band history to creativity and the brain.

Under his direction, the Yale Bands have performed at conferences of the College Band Directors National Association and New England College Band Association; for club audiences at NYC’s Village Vanguard and Iridium, Ronnie Scotts’s (London), and the Belmont (Bermuda); performed as part of the inaugural ceremonies for President George H.W. Bush; and concertized in nineteen countries in the course of sixteen international tours.

Duffy produced a two-year lecture/performance series, Music and the Brain, with the Yale School of Medicine; and, with the Yale School of Nursing, developed a musical intervention to train nursing students to better hear and identify body sounds with the stethoscope. He combined his interests in music and science to create a genre of music for the bilateral conductor - in which a “split-brained conductor” must conduct a different meter in each hand, sharing downbeats. His compositions have introduced a generation of school musicians to aleatory, the integration of spoken/sung words and “body rhythms” with instrumental performance, and the pairing of music with political, social, historical and scientific themes. He has been awarded the Yale Tercentennial Medal for Composition, the Elm/ Ivy Award, the Yale School of Music Cultural Leadership Citation and certificates of appreciation by the United States Attorney’s Office for his Yale 4/Peace: Rap for Justice concerts – music programs designed for social impact by using the power of music to deliver a message of peace and justice to impressionable middle and high school students.

From 1996 to 2006, he served as associate, deputy and acting dean of the Yale School of Music. He has served as a member of the Fulbright National Selection Committee, the Tanglewood II Symposium planning committee, and the Grammy Foundation Music Educators Award Screening Committee, and completed the MLE program at the Harvard University Institute for Management and Leadership in Education. He has served as: president of the Connecticut Composers Inc., the New England College Band Directors Association and the College Band Directors National Association (CBDNA); editor of the CBDNA Journal, publicity chair for the World Association of Symphonic Bands and Ensembles; and chair of the Connecticut Music Educators Association’s Professional Affairs and Government Relations committees. For nine years, he represented music education in Yale’s Teacher Preparation Program. He is a member of American Bandmasters Association, American Composers Alliance, the Connecticut Academy of Arts and Sciences, Connecticut Composers Incorporated, the Social Science Club, and BMI. Duffy has conducted ensembles all over the world and was selected to conduct the NAFME National Honor Band in the Kennedy Center, Washington, D.C.

YALE CONCERT BAND

YALE CONCERT BAND 2021-22 THOMAS C. DUFFY, Music Director STEPHANIE HUBBARD, Business Manager

Piccolos Salena Huang GSAS ’26* Maddy Park MY ’25 Flutes Rosa Kleinman BF ’23* Emily He DC ’24 Seb Seager SM ’23 Yaa Owusu JE ’22 Katie Handler TC ’22 Elijah Bakaleynik DC ’24 Maddy Park MY ’25 Denise Peng ES ‘25 Alto Flute Emily He DC ’24 Oboes Miranda Margulis-Ohnuma BR ’23* Ana Rodrigues BR ’25 Ryan Tie-Shue SM ’22 Zara Ashford SY ’25 A Clarinets Jalen Li PC ’23 Margalit Patry-Martin GH ’25 E-flat Clarinet Eli Gilbert BF ’24 B Clarinets Jalen Li PC ’23, Keith L. Wilson Principal Clarinet Chair Margalit Patry-Martin GH ’25 Daphne Zhu ES ’22 Joshua Rothbaum TD ’23 Jessica Liu GH ’25 Ben Kramer BF ’23 Charles Simonds DC ’22 Daniel Denney ES ’24 Kayleigh Hackett SY ’25 Kelly Hurrell Bass Clarinet Alex Dergal YSM ’22

Bassoons Pax Ryan BK ’25 Katia Osorio YSM ’22 Ryan Goodwin YSM ’23

Tubas Bridget Conley YSM ’22 Sourav Roy TC ’25 Vivian Kung YSM ’22

Contrabassoon Ryan Goodwin YSM ’23

Cellos Francis Fedora TD ’24 Matt Udry DC ’22

Soprano Saxophone Tony Ruan BF ’25 Alto Saxophones Tony Ruan BF ’25* Sahil Mane TC ’24 Matthew Fan BF ’24 Dennis Lee DC ’24 Alina Martel TC ‘23

String Bass Zachary Merkovsky YSM ’22 Organ Ethan Haman YSM ’22 Celeste Jack McArthur MY ’22

Tenor Saxophones Aaron Yu MC ’25* Esteban Figueroa MC ’25

Harps Violetta Norrie YSM ’21 Alyssa Hall

Baritone Saxophone Michael Chen GH ’23

Percussion Jack McArthur MY ’22 Max Su SY ‘25 Tristan Weaver SM ’23 Alex Wynn TD ’22

Cornets/Trumpets James Brandfonbrener MC ’22* Jordan Romano TC ’25 Izzy Lopez MY ’23 French Horns Ava Conway YSM ’22 Stephanie Fritz YSM ’23 Torrin Hallett YSM ’23 Keenan Miller DC ’24 Franco Ortiz YSM ’23 Jaimee Reynolds YSM ’22 Trombones Theo Haaks BR ’24 Addison Maye-Saxon YSM ’23 Aaron Smith BF ’25 Cody Uman MC ’25 Euphonium John Liu TD ’25

Music Librarian Michael Chen GH ’23 * Principal **Friends of Keith L. Wilson (Director of Yale Bands from W1946–1973) honored him by endowing the principal clarinet chair in the Yale Concert Band in his name. If you would like information about naming a Yale Concert Band chair, please contact the Yale Bands office.

OFFICERS: President: Alina Martel General Managers: Theo Haaks, Tony Ruan Publicity Chair: Seb Seager Social Chairs: Jalen Li, Joshua Rothbaum

Yale University Bands P.O. Box 209048, New Haven, CT 06520–9048 ph: (203) 432–4111; fax: (203) 432–7213 stephanie.hubbard@yale.edu | https://bands.yalecollege.yale.edu/