Tuesday, January 31, 2017 at 7:30 pm in Person Recital Hall. Dr. Timothy Holley (violoncello) and Mr. Adam Mitchell (tenor and UNC music alumnus) in a program of music for tenor and cello written by African-American composers, Gary Powell Nash (Fisk University), Stephen Michael Newby (Seattle Pacific University), and Bill Banfield (Berklee College of Music). Work, Play, and Spirit Songs for Tenor and Violoncello
“Work and Play” (2012) Gary Powell Nash, b.1964 Poetry of Paul Laurence Dunbar (1872-1906) 1. The Dilettante: A Modern Type 2. By The Stream Spiritual Fantasy No.1 (1991) Stephen Michael Newby, b.1961 I. Sometimes I Feel Like A Motherless Child II. Plenty Good Room Spirit Songs (1992) Bill Banfield, b.1961 1. Were You There? 2. Soon… 3. Hold On Program Notes To open this evening’s program, Dr. Gary Powell Nash (Fisk University) has graciously provided the following comments: Work and Play is a song cycle composed for tenor and cello using Paul Laurence Dunbar’s poems “The Dilettante: A Modern Type” and “By The Stream”. Many American composers have made settings of Dunbar’s poetry. His poems, many of which are written in a late 19th -early 20 th -century African-American dialect-- are strophic, having a consistent rhyme scheme that provides a wealth of imagery and natural lyricism implying their written intent: a musical setting. The melodic and motivic nucleus for this song originated from the composer listening to someone reciting the text and notating recurring rhythmic patterns, and composing melodies supported by these rhythms. “The Dilettante: A Modern Type” suggests a kind of meandering through life, as it were, with very little sense of direction, just as someone who’s considered a dilettante might be. Written in an F# minor modality, it demonstrates a directionless feeling while using the direct strophic nature of the text to support the music. The cello provides a broad yet modest rhythmic pulse and harmonic support with complementary countermelodies. The cello part also exploits advanced techniques for special effect as natural and false harmonics, pizzicato and high-register passagework. In stark contrast, “By the Stream” is light and playful, marked “playful, dance-like, quasi bossa nova”. Using a D major modality, the setting is very energetic, with highly syncopated rhythmic passages for the cello called for in the same manner as the former movement”. Dr. Nash is Professor of Music Theory and Technology at Fisk University, and directs the Fisk University Jazz Ensemble. Work and Play was composed for alumni Adam Mitchell and Christian Adams in 2012 after the VIDEMUS@25 Festival at UNC. The Spiritual Fantasy No. 1 for tenor and cello is an “early” work, characteristic of Stephen Michael Newby’s graduate student compositional efforts completed with William Bolcom and Leslie Bassett at The University of Michigan. The title and treatment of the Negro spiritual as “concept” also reflects the influence of another of Newby’s mentors, Dr. Frederick C. Tillis of The University of Massachusetts/Amherst, who composed a series of twenty-two Spiritual Fantasies for varied instrumental and ensemble combinations using and treating the Negro spiritual with immense compositional depth and imagination. Stephen gave me a score to this work during the brief time we were at U-M concurrently. It has remained in my library since that time, awaiting such a unique performance opportunity as the 2016 Composers of Color Collective Conference, which convened at The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and North Carolina Central University this past May, where it received its long-deferred first performance. Its contrastive settings of “Sometimes I Feel Like A Motherless Child” and “Plenty Good Room” are a strange, reformulated departure from the “original folk or even the Western art-music performance orientation” that audiences have depended upon so heavily when listening to the arranged songs first introduced to American and European audiences by the Fisk Jubilee Singers in the 1870s.The cello introduction creates a unique atmosphere but manages to somehow avoid any quotation of the folk song. The musical setting moves very quickly and smoothly from this odd introduction to a punctuated “phrase within verse” (“true believer in the Heavenly land”) that goes by so quickly the listener might miss it. The first song itself ends with an abbreviated return to the cello opening, but as with all the contrastive melodies and disparate rhythmic gestures, it ends nearly as soon as it begins. The second song, “Plenty Good Room” also opens with a cello introduction bearing a much closer quoted resemblance to the folk melody…even though the tenor voice intones a “different” melody than the one with which we’re probably most familiar. Both voice and cello are soon engaged in a rhythmic conversation (perhaps a sparring match as well) only interrupted by the loud cello chords and the line “I would not be a backslider”. In contrast to the opening song, “Plenty Good Room” leaves something to be desired in terms of full textual quotation and the fullest sense of form embodied within. In choral and congregational renditions of this song, the return of the refrain (always sung first and last after all verses) contains significant meaning: there NEEDS to be “plenty good room” for the backsliders and gamblers…a full refrain’s worth!! But Newby’s setting is so abbreviated, containing only the words of the song’s title: same message, but much LESS form, fuss and feathers in the testimony!! Dr. Newby is Associate Professor of Music, Director of Composition, and serves as the Director of the Center for Worship at Seattle Pacific University. Bill Banfield, like Stephen Michael Newby, is a native of Detroit and studied at the University of Michigan. He is Professor of Africana Studies/Music and Society at the Berklee College of Music in Boston. Bill Banfield’s Spirit Songs for tenor and cello are the amalgamation of folksong arrangement and original composition, each artistic approach cooperating within the creative process and its expressive product. Aside from the familiar melodic quotation of “Were You There”, Banfield crafts his setting as a dialogue with the cello "meditations" interspersed between each verse of the spiritual. Within each meditation, a variety of harmonic and percussive effects are called forth, both to enhance the imagery and intensify the emotional significance of each verse. "Soon (And Very Soon We Are Going To See The King)" was a popular gospel song written and recorded by Andrae Crouch in 1975. Banfield "frames" the familiar chorus within separately composed music intended to introduce and provide “structural compliment" for it (the reason for its truncated title). The middle song culminates at climax, moving immediately into "Hold On". This closing song is characterized by hard-driving rhythmic accompaniment (all cello-executed!!), and clearly recalls Black popular music of the 1960s and 1970s. The challenge of playing with such a stylistic and expressive approach calls for the risk of playing with reckless abandon!! There is a strange sense of “rhythmic disjunction" present in this song directly related to its refrain, "Keep yo' han' on de plow an' hold on". Banfield describes this as the "bumping, disjointed effect of plowing a field behind a mule". Such a comment casts clear recognition upon the historical importance of the Negro spiritual tradition and its legacy, whose deepest meaning is found in the recognition of its inherent multiple contexts and “thorn-crowned experience”-- the Holy Bible, unholy American history, and the torn experiences of a diverse community struggling to “take root in a foreign land”. The spiritual and emotional “progression” within these songs can also be equally understood and appreciated: identification with the Crucifixion defines the first song, expectation of the Second Coming resounds in the second, while faithfulness and perseverance prevail in the closing song, exhorting us to "hold on—but go bravely forward, staying faithful to the task at hand" TWH Adam Mitchell (tenor) has been performing popular and classical vocal repertoire in North Carolina for the past eight years. Some of his favorite performances include the presentation of a lecture recital on Spanish art song in the fall of 2012, performing as Azor the UNC Opera production of scenes from Zemire et Azor (Andre Ernest Modeste Gretry) in the Fall 2012, performing William Banfield’s Spirit Songs at the VIDEMUS@25 Festival hosted by the University of North Carolina in the Spring 2012, and performing as the tenor soloist for “Go Down Moses” by Moses Hogan on the UNC Men’s Glee Club Tour in January of 2012. He holds the Bachelor of Music degree with a concentration in Voice and a K-12 teaching licensure in music from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (2013). He studied voice under Dr. Louise Toppin and Dr. Valentin Lanzrein, and music education under Dr. Daniel Huff, and sang first tenor in the UNC Men’s Glee Club under Dr. Huff. In addition, Mr. Mitchell also completed an intensive study in Spanish art song through Project Canción Española at La Escuela Superior del Canto in Madrid, Spain under the instruction of Jorge Robaina and Julio Alexis Muñoz in Summer 2011, where he performed in recitals and master classes. Mr. Mitchell has taught elementary music in North Carolina for three years, and currently lives in Kernersville, NC, teaching there at Cash Elementary School in where in addition to school teaching, he also teaches private lessons in voice, guitar, and drums. Timothy Holley (violoncello) is Associate Professor of Music at North Carolina Central University. He was an active participant in the VIDEMUS@25 Festival (2012), during which he met and coached Adam Mitchell and Christian Adams for their performance of the Banfield Spirit Songs. This evening’s performance can be said to “represent a christening and homecoming altogether”, as it is here at UNC that the creative genesis of the Nash cycle can be located—at VIDEMUS@25. Both the Nash and Newby works were premiered last May at the CCC 2016 Conference, and the Banfield Spirit Songs ALWAYS manage to shout a need for more performances!!
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The Baroque Workshop yesterday with Stephanie Vial and Brent Wissick was a big success in spite of the early Sunday morning call. A goodly number of cellists came to Person Hall at UNC-Chapel, some from as far away as Virginia and Fuquay Varina. Brent and Stephanie were absolutely wonderful, engaging, animated and filled with interesting ideas for everyone. They also played together, giving us a fine rendition of the Adagio of Vivaldi's 3rd Sonata demonstrating beautifully the aesthetic and approach they've been studying for years. A presentation of several musical examples, using both manuscript and modern day printing projected on to a large screen, made it easy for us to see and play different dances in the baroque style. After an question and answer period and a coffee break, the group moved to a larger room to play cello ensemble pieces. Some extra titbits - Brent's Journal of Seventeenth-Century Music http://sscm-jscm.org/v12/no1/wissick.html and "Memories of Penn State, Advice for Students" https://youtu.be/Qy-ssgw0FSM http://nccellosociety.weebly.com/blogs/the-ce… Thanks to Tim Holley for sending these links. Below is an example of exquisite baroque playing. Brent, am I correct in thinking Elisabeth Reed is a Chapel Hill girl? https://youtu.be/akvSHGd5RpU In celebration of the upcoming Baroque cello workshop http://viewedscroll.blogspot.com/2016/10/the-cello-and-its-mysteries-of.html A View From the Scroll: African-American Cello History…or as Much of It As We Can Remember The Cello and its Mysteries of Repertoire... The Cello and (a few of) its Mysteries of Repertoire: "Thoughts in process"... When a work of creative art is completed, it takes on a life of its own, automatically and autonomously moving away from its originator in some "anti-Promethean" manner verging on the rebellious at the extreme (or so we might be tempted to muse indulgently). However, who indeed has started this mysterious foolishness? The composer? The performer? The publisher? The audience? The critics?? Answers to each of these questions are difficult to provide in a complete and evenly conclusive formulation, but those answers we have as a result of scholarly investigation and "sleuthwork" do provide an engaging snapshot of the history of the artistic, musical, pedagogical and commercial development of cello music over the past three centuries. The celebrated Gavotte by Jean-Baptiste Lully (1632-1687) was not composed by him, but the French viola da gambist Marin Marais (1656-1728)!! Marais was a composition student of Lully, and both were court musicians under King Louis XIV ("Le roi de soleil") at Versailles. The Richmond Symphony violinist and music appreciation blogger Timothy Judd (www.thelistenersclub.com) makes the following comment about the "Lully Gavotte": "Toward the end of Volume 2 of the Suzuki Violin Repertoire, there's a charming little gavotte attributed to the French baroque composer Jean-Baptiste Lully. It's based on a 1904 arrangement by the German violinist Willy Burmester; it's likely that Shinichi Suzuki heard this arrangement in his twenties when he was studying in Berlin with another German violinist Karl Klinger". In the 1920s and 1930s the "Back to Bach" renaissance was in full swing, as well as the multivalent push to market concert music in live performance, in published sheet music for both home entertainment, formal and informal education, and the marketing of musicians who made such "discoveries" to arrange, perform, record and make a profit (I'll discuss more of that latter motive later). In our time, nonetheless, we appreciate Suzuki's inclusion of the Gavotte as developmental violin (and cello!!) repertoire, as well as the "global" influence of his music education legacy. Jean-Baptiste Lully Marin Marais From Versailles, Lully and Marais we move on to Milan, London and back to Paris...via the Sonata in G Major of Giovanni Battista Sammartini: many of us hardly recognize the name Martin Berteau (1691-1771), who was often referred to in print as "Signor Martino"...very close in spelling (and probable typo) to Sammartini!! To make matters even more confusing, there were actually TWO Sammartini brothers, Giovanni (1700-1775) andGiuseppe (1695-1770), both of whom were composers and direct contemporaries of Berteau!! After extensive online searching, the following visual tendency has come to light: While the Sammartini brothers are mentioned in close proximity, it is a challenge locating a picture of each one of them distinctly!! The pictures in abundance are most often attributed to Giovanni, but the same likeness is often given to Giuseppe!! This is one of precious few clearly given to Giuseppe... Giuseppe Sammartini Aside from "visual" or even cosmetic differences, the MOST confusing issue is that of how the following composer's names were spared the confusion and interchangeability that must have dogged them even to the point of certain humor: Sammartini, S. Martini, St. Martini, San Martino (a name to which we'll return shortly), Signor Martino (and even a "Martino Bitti"). Neither of the Sammartini brothers were cellists, but both wrote chamber and orchestral music. Giuseppe is distinguished as a composer of orchestral and operatic music, while Giovanni composed solo, chamber and orchestral works. The image below is the more familiar but also "equally misattributed" image of one of the brothers...occasionally BOTH!! Their father, Alexis Saint-Martin, was a French oboist; the family lived in Milan, but their talent and training didn't keep them in Milan for very long: numerous opportunities came quickly for performances around the European continent and England. Giovanni Battista Sammartini Sir Charles Burney may have made the greatest contribution to the "comedy of mispronunciation" in his mention of "San Martini" in Sammartini's oboe accompaniment to an aria in Nicola Porpora's opera Polifemo (1735). Another London advertisement of six years earlier adds both further mispronunciation and misappropriation: Sammartini is listed in print as "Signor St. Martini of Milan" performing at the Hickford's Concert Room (1729). Their cellist contemporary, Martin Berteau (also referred to in print as "Signor Martino") has been determined to have composed the Sonata in G Major for cello once attributed to Giovanni Battista (and to Giuseppe, whose output also includes a cello sonata). While Martin Berteau is regarded as the "Father of the French School of Cello Playing", it is all but left up to conjecture as to how much traveling and documented performing Berteau did in his lifetime. It stands to simple reason that "the three St. Martini brothers" could have indeed met or performed together; all that is needed is a journaled reference made to them (which is most difficult to locate and give historical verification). Needless to say, the "room for misnomer and misattribution" remains just as large now as it was over three hundred years ago. The London violinist Henry Eccles (1670-1742) has received centuries of attribution as the composer of the Sonata in g minor for cello and piano, which first appeared amid a volume of twelve sonatas for the violin compiled by Eccles and dedicated to Chevalier Joseph Gage, a well-known English entrepreneur actively engaged in the Parisian social and financial circles of 1720. The misattributed sonata is the eleventh of the set, and is said to be of his own composition; but six other solo works are known to have been "borrowed" from the Italian composers Giuseppe Valentini (1681-1753) and Francesco Bonporti (1672-1749). The art of compositional "borrowing" was common before the advent of commercial publishing on a mass scale, and it may have been that Eccles was "acting as something of an artistic, creative and marketing intermediary" toward his dedicatee. Valentini (whose nickname was "Straccioncino", meaning Little Ragamuffin) and Bonporti have been overshadowed by some of their contemporaries for reasons both understandable and mysterious. Valentini studied with Giovanni Bononcini in Rome (1692-97) and succeeded Arcangelo Corelli as concertino director at San Luigi dei Francesi (1710-41). Bonporti directly influenced Johann Sebastian Bach through the development of the invention; Bach transcribed four of his violin pieces (opus 10) for harpsichord. An ordained priest most of his life, his output numbers just twelve opera (works or groups of works). Giuseppe Valentini Francesco Bonporti While several of Bonporti's works were included in collections of works copied for use by Johann Sebastian Bach, the aria "Bist du bei mir", long attributed to Bach (via the published set) is actually by Gottfried Heinrich Stolzel (1690-1749). Like Bach, Stolzel was well-known during his lifetime (a fellow honorary member of Lorenz Mizler's Society of Musical Sciences, inducted in 1739; Bach would follow in 1747), yet forgotten by the early 19th century. Bach performed Stolzel's cantatas and instrumental music during the 1735 liturgical year in Leipzig. Fortunately, two of his arias from his operas were included in two instructional and recreational "music notebooks" for Bach's oldest son Wilhelm Friedemann, and his second wife Anna Magdalena. Gottfried Heinrich Stolzel The next subtopic deals not with the "misattributed", but the "appropriated"...mainly and often for purposes of repertory development and stylistic "celebration" instead: the transcriptive works of Gaspar Cassado (1897-1966) and Henri Casadesus (1879-1947). Cassado--the eminent Spanish cellist, student and fellow native Catalonian of Pablo Casals, was invited to study with Casals after a recital he gave in Barcelona at age nine!! (And he started playing cello at age seven!!) He became one of the most celebrated concert cellists of the first half of the 20th century, and enjoyed some of the public and critical acclaim that Pablo Casals walked away from when he retired from the concert stage in protest against the Spanish Civil War. He also was a gifted composer and arranger who made numerous contributions to the cello repertoire through his transcriptions. However, in light of the standards of "creative and artistic economy" of our time, he went a bit too far in composing the Toccata and claiming that it was a work of Girolamo Frescobaldi (1583-1643). This represents another "creative point on the star of aesthetic notoriety", that of having written a work of art but stating it to be the work of an already renowned artist when it would've been just as felicitous to place one's own name in print as the composer. According to one source, Cassado did not consider himself a "serious" composer; however, we can't know in completion what Cassado REALLY thought of his compositional gift beyond notions of "professional" music composition. We DO know that the Toccata is a fine work of cello writing that has stood both tests of time and technical substance among cellists and audiences since its "publication" (and probable composition) in 1925. Girolamo Frescobaldi Henri Casadesus comes from the Casadesus dynasty of French concert musicians and artists which now extends five generations. His nephew and niece, Robert and Gaby Casadesus were both concert pianists. Of his immediate generation of seven other siblings his brother, Marcel was a cellist; brothers Francis and Marius were composers. The question of exactly how or why within a family of so much prodigious and fecund talent the practice of "musical forgery" occurred with such regularity remains a unique mystery . However, violist and music history blogger Sarah Stull of The Royal Conservatory of Scotland (https://theviolaexperiment.wordpress.com/2013/03) has provided "partial absolution" (pun intended): "Actually written by Henri Casadesus himself in the style of the purported composer, J. C. Bach., the viola concerto has an intriguing history. According to his own version of the tale, violist Henri Casadesus first presented the piece to Madame Salabert in Paris, 1947, asking her to publish it in memory of her recently deceased husband, Francis Salabert. The preface in the score states that the concerto was received in 1916 by Casadesus from Camille Saint-Saens. Casadesus claimed only to have edited the piece, and had ‘evidence’ to document its original performance in 1789 on viola-de-gamba. Upon Casadesus’s death in 1947, however, it was discovered that it was all a forgery: every piece of evidence was false. The piece’s name reflects the original confusion: ‘The J. C. Bach/Casadesus Concerto.’ It is a strident piece, full of Romantic harmonies beneath the Classical facade. Musical forgeries were hugely popular in the period between 1860-1935, as there was little chance of being caught. This was because most of the knowledge of the preceding musical era had been lost, save for composer’s names. Thus, forgers were able to work unhindered, making a living off the un-besmirched names of their predecessors. Even until much later, a great deal of the early musical periods remained unknown. It was easy to pass off one’s own work as the work of another. Other forgers working under the names of the greatest composers included Fritz Kreisler, Ferdinand David, Gaspar Cassado. These men, like Casadesus, passed off their own work as the works of great composers, including Paganini, Vivaldi, Mozart, and even Schubert". Henri Casadesus was also a co-founder of the Society of Ancient Instruments along with Camille Saint-Saens, just as the resurgent effort of "rediscovery of many things ancient" was taking hold in Europe via the academy and government office. While the loss of original and accurate information about past musical traditions is a somber reality, the need of "spurious recreation above the real and accurate" can seem as alluring in 2016 as it must have been in 1947. Nevertheless, to a most fortunate extent our knowledge, acceptance and appreciation of Johann Christian Bach's ACTUAL compositions now provide us ample room for both appraisal and criticism of Casadesus's Concerto in c minor. It is a fine work that recalls some of the stile galante of J. S. Bach's sons, and certainly the neoclassical "pastiche" that was unavoidable in his time...and just as much in ours. Henri Casadesus While the Concerto in c minor of J. C. Bach is shared by violists with cellists (or better yet "the other way around"!!), the work which represents the notion of "appropriation and attribution gone overboard" is the "revision and near complete overhaul" of the Concerto in B flat Major of Luigi Boccherini (1743-1805) as re-arranged by Friedrich Gruetzmacher(1832-1903). This work occupies its own place of unhallowed oddity: a mixture of his compositional revision (of most of the opening movement's content and exchange of another movement from one of the many sonatas as the middle movement of the Concerto), his obvious admiration for the wealth of cello and chamber music available to his generation for the benefit of teachers and students alike, and his apparent "need to fill in and improve upon the stylistic shortcomings" of the original concerto. The result that we have is both interesting and, quite honestly, a strange work that certainly reflects Gruetzmacher's solid technique and yet flies in the face of the original work's sense of what was really the constantly developing but not "fully calcified" Classical style. It is this perception that occasionally consigns Boccherini to being regarded as "the odd man out" in most (ironically incomplete) discussions of the Classical Period "representative canon" of Haydn, Mozart and Beethoven. As in our communal discussions of the solo music of Bach, we must dare to mine and extract the finest "gems" of music written for the cello, and try not to "bicker over the lesser creative deposits"...regardless of how or why they got there in the first place. Luigi Boccherini Friedrich Gruetzmacher The NC Cello Society presented a Master Class with Cellist Michael Haber
on Saturday, October 15, 2016 at the Price Music Center, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC 27695, USA (map) Michael Haber, a student of Janos Starker and Gregor Piatigorsky, graduated with high academic honors from Brandeis University with a degree in European History. He did his graduate work at Harvard and at Indiana University. Mr. Haber was a member of The Cleveland Orchestra under George Szell, the Casals Festival Orchestra under Pablo Casals and The Mostly Mozart Orchestra at Lincoln Center in New York City. He was the principal cellist of several orchestras, including the Colorado Music Festival Orchestra in Boulder, Colorado. With the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, he toured and recorded throughout Europe, the USA and Asia. Mr. Haber has been on the cello and chamber music faculties of Oberlin College, Indiana University, The New England Conservatory of Music, the Eastman School of Music, Boston University and the University of Akron. He also taught and performed at many summer festivals including Aspen, Marlboro, Yellow Barn and The Manchester Festival. For ten years, he was the coach for the cello section of The New World Symphony in Miami Beach. His chamber music career includes international tours as the cellist of The Composers Quartet, in residence at Columbia University in New York, cellist of The Gabrielli Trio for 20 years and numerous appearances at music festivals and concert series throughout the USA. In 2012, he made a trip to Australia and New Zealand, presenting master classes and lessons at 12 major universities in both countries. In January 2013 he was a participant at the Akaroa International Music Festival in New Zealand. In October and November 2013, he presented 18 master classes at schools of music throughout the USA. Among the comments for Mr. Haber’s performances, the New York Times spoke of "the lyricism and perfection of his playing," the London Times called him "a romantic cellist" and The Cleveland Plain Dealer called him "a superb musician." Students who performed for Mr Haber were - Evan Jiang - Leonid Zilper, teacher/1st mvt. Saint Saens Concerto Spencer Adler - Nancy Green, teacher/ 1st mvt. Schumann Concerto Hannah Lohr-Pearson - Brent Wissick, teacher/ 4th mvt. Elgar Concerto Pavani Anand - Rosie Leavell, teacher/ 1st Bach Suite Prelude Peter Sumner - Carlos Bardales, teacher/Faure Elegie Lainie Sopa - Emma Dunlap-Grube, teacher/Popper Hungarian Rhapsody Tristan Ilika - Bonnie Thron, teacher/Popper Tarantelle Justin Taylor - Maria Valencia (public school teacher) 3rd Bach Suite Prelude It was a great opportunity for these local students to receive excellent comments and advice from a teacher with a wide experience in performance and instruction. Mr Haber's manner was encouraging and fitting for each student's level of playing. His words of wisdom were both amusing, concise and precise. An example for bowing was "Bow speed over bow pressure" in order to get the best sound out of the instrument. It's not often we hear something about this unusual instrument.
http://5stringcello.com/english/i-j-s-bach-and-the-five-string-cello/i-j-s-bach-and-the-five-string-cello/ Thursday, October 13
Memorial Hall We will open our season with an alumnus as guest soloist. Michael Rowlett, UNC class of 1994, who is currently a professor at the University of Mississippi, will perform the Concerto for Clarinet and Orchestra by Pulitzer Prize-winning Michigan composer William Bolcom. The program will also feature Beethoven’s dramatic overture to Egmont, and will close with Mendelssohn’s Symphony No. 5, the “Reformation” symphony. Tuesday, December 6 Memorial Hall Thomas Otten, head of the piano area in UNC’s Music Department, will be soloist in the popular Piano Concerto by Edvard Grieg. The orchestra will also perform Hector Berlioz’ overture to his early unfinished opera Les francs-juges, as well as the Four Sea Interludes from Benjamin Britten’s powerful Peter Grimes. Friday, February 3 Memorial Hall As part of Carolina Performing Arts’ week-long celebration of the 80thbirthday of iconic American composer Philip Glass, the UNCSO will perform Glass’ Symphony No. 4, “Heroes.” This work is based on songs from the Heroesalbum by the late David Bowie. More information can be found here: https://www.carolinaperformingarts.org/ros_perf_series/heroes-tribute-a-celebration-of-the-music-of-philip-glass-david-bowie-and-brian-eno-featuring-a-merge-records-group-and-unc-symphony-orchestra/ Thursday, March 2 Moeser Auditorium Our first performance in the newly-renovated James and Susan Moeser Auditorium in Hill Hall will be our annual concert featuring winners of the student concerto competition. Thursday, April 20 Memorial Hall Our final event of the year will be the “Defiant Requiem,” a complete performance of the Verdi Requiem augmented by narration and video describing the performance of this work by prisoners in the Terezin concentration camp during World War II. Members of our choral groups and voice faculty will join our orchestra, conducted by the creator of this production, Murry Sidlin, in this gripping evening of music and theater that has been performed worldwide over the past 15 years. More information about the Defiant Requiem and a related documentary film is on their website: http://www.defiantrequiem.org/concert-performances/defiant-requiem/description/ http://www.defiantrequiem.org/film/description/ Thursday, October 13 Memorial Hall We will open our season with an alumnus as guest soloist. Michael Rowlett, UNC class of 1994, who is currently a professor at the University of Mississippi, will perform the Concerto for Clarinet and Orchestra by Pulitzer Prize-winning Michigan composer William Bolcom. The program will also feature Beethoven’s dramatic overture to Egmont, and will close with Mendelssohn’s Symphony No. 5, the “Reformation” symphony. Tuesday, December 6 Memorial Hall Thomas Otten, head of the piano area in UNC’s Music Department, will be soloist in the popular Piano Concerto by Edvard Grieg. The orchestra will also perform Hector Berlioz’ overture to his early unfinished opera Les francs-juges, as well as the Four Sea Interludes from Benjamin Britten’s powerful Peter Grimes. Friday, February 3 Memorial Hall As part of Carolina Performing Arts’ week-long celebration of the 80thbirthday of iconic American composer Philip Glass, the UNCSO will perform Glass’ Symphony No. 4, “Heroes.” This work is based on songs from the Heroesalbum by the late David Bowie. More information can be found here: https://www.carolinaperformingarts.org/ros_perf_series/heroes-tribute-a-celebration-of-the-music-of-philip-glass-david-bowie-and-brian-eno-featuring-a-merge-records-group-and-unc-symphony-orchestra/ Thursday, March 2 Moeser Auditorium Our first performance in the newly-renovated James and Susan Moeser Auditorium in Hill Hall will be our annual concert featuring winners of the student concerto competition. Thursday, April 20 Memorial Hall Our final event of the year will be the “Defiant Requiem,” a complete performance of the Verdi Requiem augmented by narration and video describing the performance of this work by prisoners in the Terezin concentration camp during World War II. Members of our choral groups and voice faculty will join our orchestra, conducted by the creator of this production, Murry Sidlin, in this gripping evening of music and theater that has been performed worldwide over the past 15 years. More information about the Defiant Requiem and a related documentary film is on their website: http://www.defiantrequiem.org/concert-performances/defiant-requiem/description/ http://www.defiantrequiem.org/film/description/ cellist-saving-the-day-for-fellow-cellists.htmlOn July 30, the recently formed Durham Symphony Cello Quartet was slated to perform in the DPAC before the final performance of the American Dance Festival.. The day before our final rehearsal on July 29th, a phone call from one of the quartet members was to tell us that her father had had a heart attack and that she had to leave town to go to him. We were both devastated for her, and sad for us that we would not be able to present our program. At this time we had no trio music prepared. However with his goodness and generosity, Dr. Tim Holley stepped into the breech, and joined us. We had a great rehearsal and our very varied program was a hit with the audience, We had such a good time playing together, that's what music making is all about..Cheers to you Tim as a good person and fabulous musician.
Wednesday, June 15, 2016
Jane Salemson It was an evening never to be forgotten by those who attended. It began with a lively social interaction of friends and colleagues, and of course the musicians' favorite - munchies and drinks brought by all.
When it was time to see the video, the atmosphere changed rapidly. Everyone was riveted to the screen, watching Nancy's magnificent performance. The video gives a unique perspective on playing the cello at this tremendously high level. I have never been so close to the intimate interaction between another player and their instrument. Students can hardly stand right behind the teacher watching the fingers on the fingerboard, or to have their nose close to the frog on the bow. One can literally see the rosin coming off the bow on the chordal passages. In all the positions and even beyond the fingerboard, you could see each note being played, and each note was exquisite. This video is truly a work of art, combining an extraordinary musical and technical performance of this Everest of the cello repertoire, and, as Debbie says, "the beauty and imagination of the videography" by Michael Stipe.
Here are some of the comments from those attending. Debbie D. "Nancy Green's YouTube Release Party last night for the Kodaly Solo Sonata - words fail me. The artistry of Nancy's playing, the beauty and imagination of the videography....This brilliant performance should be seen by everyone who loves the cello." Dick C. "Fantastic visual and auditory experience. What a virtuoso performance!" NEW VIDEO BY NANCY GREEN! Beethoven Cello Sonata in A op. 69 mvts 3 and 4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EHtVIzlDeuQ June 12, 2016. Jane Salemson Members from all over the state arrived at the Durham North Carolina Central University Recital Hall, Edwards Music building to hear presenters talk about their teachers and mentors, and to play in a cello choir. Dr. Tim Holley, cello professor at NCCU was our host and made us welcome and comfortable in the perfect size recital hall. Eight presenters told stories about their teachers and mentors, showed us various bowings, left hand positioning and degrees of vibrato, and taught us how to play improvised accompaniments (and how to do the bow "chop"!) Attendees! Please feel free to share your photos and quotes from teachers or mentors, and give us more detailed information on the presentations, so we can have a well-documented blog page of this very special event. You can send everything through the comment box on the website Contact page. Presenters Dr. TIm Holley Brent Wissick Ed Szabo Debbie Davis Jill Soha and Hope Wilder Grace Anderson Unfortunately, Brooks Whitehouse from the NCSA was not able to be attend as a presenter, but here is a hilarious song concocted by him and bassist Paul Sharpe. https://youtu.be/COby7460XkU Quotes from Teachers and Mentors Tim Holley 1. When you work with a good pianist, treat them well!! 2. The Left Hand must ALWAYS move ahead of the Right Hand. 3. The bow is to the cellist--what the "tongue, teeth, lips, lungs and throat" are to the voice 4. All types of repertoire have a distinct message. Our challenge and responsibility is to study the details of each respective message, and bravely communicate it to a receptive and engaged audience. Plato/Casals (A.S) "Music gives a soul to the universe, wings to the mind, flight to the imagination and life to everything". Jonathan Kramer (Olga Labastova) "We cellists are always right! Never show expression if you made a mistake" Paul Tortelier (Jane Salemson) "If music be the food of love, then scales are the food of music" Jill Soha - the quote is more from experience attending many non-classical workshops over the years, than from any one teacher. "Good technique is required in playing non-classical music for the same reasons that it is required in playing classical music, both to produce good sound and to avoid injury". Comments from Presenters Dr. Tim Holley My comments were given amid a busy time of family gathering for my youngest daughter's high school graduation, which followed three consecutive weekends of travel, performing, and conference hosting!! It is a miracle that I'm able to make subject and verb AGREE!! Whenever musicians gather together, the first spoken (or unspoken) truth is the fact that THE WORLD IS SMALL!! My freely transcribed and paraphrased comments bear out this fact: I first met my Durham colleague, Julius Prescott when I was a few weeks away from graduation from Baldwin-Wallace College (University). He was auditioning, and would begin his undergraduate studies there the following fall, studying with our shared mentor Regina Mushabac--a student and former teaching assistant for Janos Starker at Indiana University. From B-W I went to The University of Michigan, where I studied with Jerome Jelinek. Jelinek studied with Luigi Silva shortly after having finished his undergraduate degree. While still in Cleveland, I sought out and introduced myself to the cellist Donald White, who in 1957 joined the Cleveland Orchestra as its first African-American member. White also studied with Silva sometime in the late 1940s or early 1950s. When White passed away in 2005, I discovered that he made a small sensation when the Orchestra went on a Southern concert tour, which included Birmingham, Alabama. The city had a local ordinance forbidding the "mixing of the races in public onstage performances", which became an issue when it was discovered that White was a contracted member of the Orchestra. In response to the ordinance, General Manager and Music Director George Szell circulated a petition among the Orchestra membership and presented it to the Mayor of Birmingham (threatening to cancel the performance if White was not permitted to perform). The concert went on as scheduled, and the event faded into obscured history in the wake of a mounting conflict over civil rights for "Negroes" and unrest over the American military presence in Vietnam. Another African-American cellist, Ralph Curry would join the Cleveland Orchestra in 1977; his brother William Henry is well-known in the Triangle Area as the music director of the Durham Symphony Orchestra and (departing) resident conductor of the North Carolina Symphony Orchestra. The Cleveland Orchestra came to Ann Arbor on concert tour, and I managed to catch Donald White at the concert and arranged to take him to meet Jerome Jelinek--a first meeting of two former Silva proteges who had been teacher and mentor-figures to me. Both men have since passed on, but the value of their knowledge of Silva's technical approach (and David Popper High School For Cello Playing Etude #17!!) serves me each day as both practitioner and pedagogue. I recall that my remaining "wisdom" comments were as follows: 1. When you work with a good pianist, treat them well!! My mother is a pianist, accompanist and choral director; so I didn't know how GOOD I've had it all along back then!! NOW I DO!! 2. The Left Hand must ALWAYS move ahead of the Right Hand. If the bow doesn't allow the left hand to do its work first, the notes of music sound as the equivalent to a 32mm film out of balance--no stable image is visible, just a blurred version of that image...times 32!! 3. The bow is to the cellist--what the "tongue, teeth, lips, lungs and throat" are to the voice; and "when you need more bow TAKE more bow!! Image keeling over in suffocation amid passionate conversation...simply because you've run out of breath!! 4. All types of repertoire have a distinct message. Our challenge and responsibility is to study the details of each respective message, and bravely communicate it to a receptive and engaged audience. I referred (over-extensively) to the comedian Bernie Mac as my piece of "wisdom" that I now impart to my students amid this aesthetically "worrisome period of performance, entertainment, education, criticism (or the lack thereof). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wMCB8eUUuNk https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pbwcEsW1bVw Jill Soha and Hope Wilder
Jill shared a broad lesson learned from her cello teacher: the fun of playing music of various genres and making your own arrangements of songs. (Her teacher, Rick Mooney, has written and arranged many songs for students and cello ensembles, and in fact we played two of his arrangements earlier in the morning). Hope then described and demonstrated several ways for cellists to create rhythmic bass lines given only chord progressions: repetition of the root note, the use of bow chops, bow chops combined with fifths, arpeggios using pizzicato, and two-part bowed chords. We tried each method in turn as Hope sang and Jill played the melodic line. Hope was introduced to the cello by professional bassist Paul Ford, and her early exposure was focused on bass line possibilites for cello in non-classical music. Classically trained cellists have asked her how she comes up with bass lines in such settings, and this inspired her to share these ideas with us. Make that Two in a Row for the RCSA
Courtesy the artist and presenter Jonathan Kramer By John W. Lambert April 24, 2016 - Raleigh, NC: A week after the Raleigh Civic Symphony Orchestra's innovative program, the other half of the Raleigh Civic Symphony Association, the Raleigh Civic Chamber Orchestra, offered its comparably innovative spring program in Stewart Theatre on the NCSU campus. Music director Peter Askim again conducted. The concert was presented under the auspices of Music@NCState. We've never had a "big five" orchestra to call our own in NC, although over time all of the upper echelon American ensembles have visited here. We do however have tiers in our less exalted orchestral sphere, starting with the NC and Charlotte orchestras, the Greensboro and Winston-Salem groups, and (although it's just a summer band) the Eastern Music Festival's professional ensemble. The next level is more crowded, for it includes our regional and community orchestras, the senior one of which is Fayetteville's. There are lots of these groups, scattered from Wilmington to Brevard and located at points in between, large and small. The cities where these organizations may be found encompass Hendersonville, Asheville, Boone, Hickory, Salisbury, Pinehurst/Southern Pines, and Rocky Mount plus of course the Triangle, where community orchestras perform in Chapel Hill, Durham, and the capital. (There are also various chamber orchestras here and there and many, many groups based in, and in most cases reaching out from, colleges and universities.) In Raleigh, the riches are more widely spread than just about anywhere else in the Tar Heel State, thanks to the NCS being based here and the concurrent presence of the Raleigh Symphony Orchestra (which doesn't have a chamber orchestra but which does offer a chamber music series) and the splendid contributions of the two ensembles fielded by the aforementioned Raleigh Civic Symphony Association. The RCSA tends to program concerts in pairs, and they are often truly innovative, partly because Askim (and his predecessor, Randolph Foy) are such enlightened artistic souls and partly because the programming is not generally driven by marketing or sales considerations. That doesn't mean the results aren't stimulating or attractive. This latest RCCO concert drew a very large crowd to Stewart for its three-pronged excellence: a new work, an important revival with a wonderful solo artist who has reached his maturity here, and a family favorite with a world-class narrator. The program consisted of the premiere of new music guru Rodney Waschka II's "Raleigh Overture," written for an orchestra of amateur players with the specific intent of being fun to play; Dohnányi's virtually unknown Konzertstück for Cello and Chamber Orchestra, featuring soloist Jonathan Kramer; and Prokofiev's "Peter and the Wolf[pack]," narrated by The Simpsons’ vocal virtuosoHarry Shearer (who, truth to tell, may have prompted the attendance of some members of the audience, but surely not all of them). "Peter" began and ended as if it were a Wolfpack sportscast, but in between the account was relatively straight, and (for better or worse) there wasn't a whole pack of wolves – despite the hopes of some of us that the tale might have turned out differently, had the odds been shifted. Never mind. The orchestra played this with considerable radiance, the principals (flute, oboe, clarinet, bassoon, timpani), the sections (horns, strings), and indeed the whole bunch sounding as good as or maybe even better than ever. The narration was exemplary, with (as expected) considerable characterization for the different animal voices. Shearer set a high bar against which future performances here must perforce be measured. And the performers were greeted with a standing ovation at the end. Earlier, Waschka's all-acoustic overture proved busy, intense, and engaging in a sort of Ivesian way, vigorously propelled but with folk tunes plugged in here and there where Ives would almost certainly have employed hymns and patriotic songs. It was a surprising departure for NCSU's distinguished new music composer, one some of us might have perceived more in tune with electronics, tape loops, and such. This, too, was warmly received. The Dohnányi was given a memorable reading by Kramer, whose career in Raleigh began over 30 years ago in the NC Symphony but soon thereafter morphed to Person of All Talents at NCSU. (He maintains his ties with the downtown orchestra by giving pre-concert lectures in Meymandi Concert Hall.) His performance was worthy of note and celebration, too, by those who know him. We expect our important solo artists to have long careers, and Kramer's been here long enough to prompt rejoicing whenever he plays. The work itself, in several distinct parts, played without pause, is concerto-like, and the interplay between Kramer and the RCCO, watchfully tended by Askim, proved truly heartwarming as the music gracefully unfolded. As heard from toward the back of the theater, the sound was better when the orchestra was going full-tilt, as in most of the new Waschka piece and in "Peter." The sound seemed somewhat recessed during the Dohnányi, but the reason for that may have resulted from slight miscalculations of balance between the low-voiced cello and the massed strings (with considerable strength in the violas, cellos, and bass) or perhaps the hall's always-quirky acoustics, which do not appear to have been significantly altered during the recent renovation of the student center. Nonetheless, if the orchestras of the RCSA are not on your radar, fine-tune it and check them out again next fall. |
AuthorMembers of the North Carolina Cello Society Archives
November 2020
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