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This page is for you - our audience. We always enjoy talking to you during our performances about the pieces and composers you're about to hear, but often we have more to say than we have time for. So we'd like to take this opportunity to give you some additional program notes for our concerts. Here you can read about the composers, the pieces and find links to more detailed information on our concert repertoire.
Saturday - October 22, 2011
"That's All Folk!"
our featured composer
TING HO
Dr. Ting Ho is a senior member of the music faculty of the Cali School of Music at Montclair State University (MSU), where he is Coordinator of Music Theory and Composition. He currently chairs the College of the Arts Distance Learning Committee, which is responsible for overseeing courses and programs in that College that include distance learning components. He has personally designed a number of music courses for both majors and non-majors that are delivered entirely online using both Blackboard and Moodle Learning Management Systems. Dr. Ho also serves as a Music Mentor in the Prior Learning Assessment program of Thomas Edison State College (TESC).
As a composer, Dr. Ho has received awards and grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, the National Endowment for the Humanities, the American Music Center and the New Jersey State Council on the Arts, and he is the recipient of the Louis Lane Prize. His original compositions have received performances at Alice Tully Hall and Weill Recital Hall in New York City, the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC, and elsewhere in the United States and abroad. One of his works was featured in a Voice of America broadcast to the Orient.
I. Stepped out
II. Stepped out again
III. Stepped out last timeIt’s summer, when we’re often thinking about adding the message “I’m away from my desk...”
as our voice or e-mail response. Although we can only dream of the getaways we’d like to take, the
music of our thoughts will often reflect foreign locales. “I’m Away From My Desk...” is a three-
movement excursion, beginning with the anticipation--by boat, plane or something more exotic? Then a
quiet respite, perhaps in a tropical locale. Finally, an evening in dance mode, samba perhaps...Ting Ho is a senior member of the music faculty of Montclair State University, where he serves
as Coordinator of the Theory/Composition program. He has received awards and grants from the
National Endowment for the Arts, the National Endowment for the Humanities, the American Music
Center and the New Jersey State Council on the Arts. He is the recipient of the Louis Lane Prize. His
original compositions have received performances at Alice Tully Hall and Weill Recital Hall in New York
City, the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC, and elsewhere in the United States and abroad. One of
his works was featured in a Voice of America broadcast to the Orient. Dr. Ho received his MA at Kent
State University and his PhD at the Eastman School of Music of the University of Rochester, where his
teachers included Sam Adler, Wayne Barlow, Warren Benson and Joseph Schwantner.“I’m Away From My Desk...” will be the second collaboration of Dr. Ho with the Palisades
Virtuosi. The first was last year’s premiere of Making Peace with soprano Lori Ernest at Montclair State’s
Composers in the House series. Dr. Ho has also composed works premiered by Edmund Battersby, Mark
Pakman, Ruth Rendleman, Barbara Novak, David Hatt, Romie de Guise-Langlois and Gabriela Martinez.(Duration: 12 minutes)
MORE NOTES COMING SOON...meanwhile visit these links for more information
6 Romanian Dances by Bela Bartok [corr. by PV]
6 American Folk Dances - George Thom Ritter
Variations on "Au claire de la lune" - Frank Ezra Levy
6 Studies in English Folk Song - Ralph Vaughan Williams
Three American Portraits - Randall E. Faust
Saturday March 26, 2011
"H2O"
-water in all its forms-our featured composer
David Sampson
World Premiere of
"Undercurrents Redux" [2010]David Sampson (b. 1951, Charlottesville, Virginia) has emerged as one of the truly unique voices of his generation achieving rapidly growing attention from major orchestras, soloists and ensembles. He is currently Composer-in-Residence with the Colonial Symphony Orchestra (1998-2003).
Recent and coming major premieres include Hommage JFK commissioned by the National Symphony Orchestra; Monument commissioned by the Barlow Foundation for the Akron and Memphis symphony orchestras; Turns for Cello and Orchestra commissioned by the Bergen Foundation and cellist Paul Tobias and premiered with the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra; Triptych for trumpet and orchestra commissioned by the International Trumpet Guild and premiered by Raymond Mase at the Aspen Music Festival and with the American Composers Orchestra at Carnegie Hall; Dectet commissioned by the Chicago Chamber Musicians; Elements commissioned by the Elements Quartet; Strata commissioned by the NEA and the American Brass Quintet; and three orchestral works commissioned by the Colonial Symphony Orchestra.
Other recent works include Breathing Lessons for saxophone quartet commissioned by Chamber Music America for the Amherst Saxophone Quartet, Jersey Rain commissioned by the National Endowment for the Arts and the Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation and premiered by Harmonium and Masterworks Choruses and the Colonial Symphony, Three Portraits for tuba and orchestra commissioned by Scott Mendoker; Short Stories commissioned by Chamber Music America and the Pew Charitable Trusts; The War Prayer for soloists, chorus and
orchestra commissioned by the National Endowment for the Arts and premiered by Princeton Pro Musica; Four Winds commissioned by the Chelsea Chamber Ensemble; and Simple Lives commissioned by the Colonial Symphony.Recent recording releases include Monument, Triptych, Hommage JFK, Three Portraits, Simple Lives (Czech Philharmonic Chamber Orchestra; Alan Balter, conductor; Raymond Mase, trumpet; Scott Mendoker, tuba; Summit Records DCD237); Short Stories (Dorian Wind Quintet, Summit Records); Morning Music and Distant Voices (American Brass Quintet, Summit Records); Reflections on a Dance (Summit Brass, Summit Records); The Mysteries Remain and Solo (Raymond Mase, Summit Records). In October 2000, his Serenade for flugelhorn and string orchestra was recorded by the Czech Philharmonic Chamber Orchestra with Raymond Mase as soloist and Paul Polivnick conducting; and his Dectet was recorded by the Wihan Quartet, Afflatus Wind Quintet and pianist Richard Ormrod with Paul Polivnick conducting.
David Sampson has received major grants from the NEA, American Academy of Arts and Letters, Barlow Endowment, New Jersey State Council on the Arts, Jerome Foundation, Cary Trust, and the Dodge Foundation, among others. He holds degrees from the Curtis Institute of Music, Hunter College, Manhattan School of Music, and the Ecoles d'Art Americaines, where his teachers included Karel Husa, Henri Dutilleux and John Corigliano in composition; and Gerard Schwarz, Gilbert Johnson, Robert Nagel, and Raymond Mase in trumpet. His music is published by Editions BIM, Cantate Press and David Sampson Music. He has served on the Board of the Composers Guild of New Jersey and the Advisory Board of the Bergen Foundation.
more program notes to come soon...
"Myths & Legends"TWO World Premieres!!
October 23, 2010
Composer and flutist David Gilbert, a member of the faculty of Manhattan School of Music since 1983 and its resident conductor, has conducted many orchestral and opera performances at the school, including the recent U.S. premiere of Martinu's Mirandolina and Britten's A Midsummer Night's Dream. He has led the New York premieres of Shostakovich's The Nose, and Hans Werner Henze's The English Cat, as well as Manhattan School of Music Opera Theater's productions of Ned Rorem's Miss Julie (released as a CD on the Newport Classics label), a double bill of Busoni's Arlecchino and Stravinsky's Le Rossignol, and Britten's Albert Herring (released as a CD on the Vox label), as well as William Mayer's A Death in the Family and the world premiere of Scott Eyerly's The House of the Seven Gables (both recently released on the Albany label) and Robert Ward's Roman Fever and Thomas Pasatieri's The Seagull (both also released on CD). Formerly principal conductor of American Ballet Theatre, he has also been guest conductor of the New York Philharmonic and is currently music director of the Greenwich Symphony in Connecticut, the Bergen Philharmonic in New Jersey, and the Senior Concert Orchestra of New York. In 1980, upon the invitation of the Chinese government, he spent two seasons as principal guest conductor and music advisor at the Central Philharmonic in Beijing, and was the first American to hold such a high musical post. After winning first prize in the Dimitri Mitropoulos International Competition for Conductors, Mr. Gilbert served as assistant conductor of the New York Philharmonic from 1970 to 1979 and was selected by Pierre Boulez to be chief assistant conductor for the Bayreuth Festival in 1976. He has also guest-conducted such ensembles as the Pittsburgh, Rochester, New Jersey, Nashville, Oakland, Louisville, and Lexington symphonies as well as the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra and the Pro Arte of Boston, not to mention numerous ensembles in Korea, China, and Europe. For three summers, 2000 to 2002, Mr. Gilbert conducted concerts at the International Piano Festival, in Tenerife, in the Canary Islands. Mr. Gilbert has represented Manhattan School of Music as the United States judge for the Pedrotti International Conducting Competition in Trento, Italy.
“Mythic Serenade” imagines a journey to a world of legend. “Perpetual Motion I” is akin to rapid travel (via time-machine?). One arrives in a world of romance, fantasy, wonder and reverie. “Perpetual Motion II” returns us to the present world, hopefully enriched.JAMES CHWALYK, JR. (b. 1987) is a recent graaduate of Montclair State University with degrees in Music Education and Music Theory/Composition with a minor in Harry Partch Microtonal Studies. He is an active performer on trombone, euphonium, and keyboards and has played in numerous venues including the New Jersey Performing Arts Center, Algonquin Arts Theater, and Alexander Kasser Theater. James is a hired performer with the Garden State Concert Band, under the direction of Dominic Ferrara III, and has had the pleasure of playing under several prominent conductors on the eastern seaboard, including United States Air Force Assistant Drum Major Chief Master Sergeant Edward J. Teleky, Dr. Mary Ann Craig, Dr. William Sylvester, and Dr. Michael Votta. His works have been performed by theBloomfield Youth Band and the Montclair State University Brass Quintet, among various other artists. In November 2006, his "’Reflections’ for Three Trombones" was premiered by international recording artists Anthony Mazzocchi, James T. Miller, and John Rojak at Montclair State University’s first annual “Trombone Day” festival. James also has a passion for theater, and is a past Music Director and Treasurer of the Charles Seller Foundation/Talent Time Players, a non-profit, charitable theater organization based in his hometown of Bloomfield, NJ. In addition to his “behind the scenes” roles, James has appeared on stage and in the orchestra for several community theater productions. He is an active member of the American Music Center,International Thespian Society, and the Ancient and Honorable Order of Turtles, and is a Past Master Councilor, Past Deputy State Master Councilor, and Chevalier of New Jersey DeMolay. James is also a past President of Montclair State University Chapter 323 of the New Jersey Collegiate Music Educators National Conference, currently serving as a Senator. James has studied composition with Patrick Burns and Daniel Beliavsky. You may visit James at http://www.myspace.com/chwalyk
Unlike many pieces, "Time Unheard" is not about something from the human experience, but rather something the human experience lacks - immortality. There is much time that existed before we were born, and time will, presumably, go on long after we each perish. Debates have raged on for centuries as to the specific details about time. Is it infinite? Can we control it? What happens to it once it is used? If anything is certain about it, its origins and destinations are never too clear, other than seeming simply and forever forward-moving. Then again, sometimes minutes feel like hours and hours like minutes. Thoughts like "times change" and "time flies" further contribute to its whimsy. "Time Unheard" seeks to demonstrate these properties of time in a musical fashion - its foreboding, incessant reality, its blessing with the availabilities of friends and family, its playful attitudes on occasion, and above all, its strange power. This piece was written in loving memory of Maryann "Nan" Zelinski.
PROGRAM NOTES for the other works on this program
pdf format
"Around the World in 80 Minutes!"
June 13, 2010
We will take a trip around the world on this concert!
Our inspiration for this concert theme was centered around our featured composer
and the countries to which his company travels-STEPHEN PERILLO
Steve Perillo is a composer by night and the president of an international tour company, Perillo Tours, by day. He resides in Saddle River, New Jersey. Mr. Perillo's composition studies were almost solely under the guidance of David del Tredici at Boston University. His works are a colorful and dramatic combination of pop, classical and 20th century concert styles. While eclectic, he maintains a rigorous formal technique. Mr. Perillo's catalog includes dozens of piano works, 100 pop songs, a flute sonata, brass quintet, 2 wind quintets, piano trio, string quartet, 8 extended "tone poems" for large orchestra, a piano concerto and a "Magnificat" for mixed chorus and orchestra. His first commercial recording, Requiem for a Goldfish, was released on the Centaur label in September 1999. Critics were unanimous in their praise. It has been played numerous times on national and local radio stations.Mr. Perillo's 2nd and 3rd CD's were also released in 2001 on the Centaur Label - "Perillo's Magnificat and other Choral Masterpieces" and "Napoli!"
Our commissioned work, "Tour de force" is two movements in length. The first movement "Kaleidoscope" is based on two thematic sections that shift several times throughout the movement. The 2nd movementt is a frolicking and fun "Rondo". We are delighted with this new work and we believe we have found a new audience favorite!!
ITALY - Our first stop on this program is in Italy with Trio for flute, clarinet [orig. violin] & piano [1958] by Nino Rota. We've done several works by Nino Rota on our programs over the years - He was not only a wonderful composer of classical works but also the famed composer of filmscores for all of Fellini's films and perhaps his most well-known scores are for "The Godfather" and "Romeo & Juliet". He studied at Curtis Institute in Philadelphia and then traveled back to Milan to achieve a degree in literature. This trio is in three movements, an energetic and driving first movement, a languid and miasmic slow movement and a molto perputuo last movement.We travel on to ISRAEL for 2 songs for clarinet & piano by Paul Ben-Haim. Originally conceived as vocalises, the composer himself transcribed these pieces for clarinet and piano. "Arioso" is a languid and dreamy meditation that evokes the desert heat of the middle east. The 2nd song, "Ballad", uses shifting and babbling figures to evoke the feeling one has when listening to a storyteller.
UNITED STATES - HAWAII - Ron has now become the unofficial mascot of Hawaiian composers. After spending hours on the computer, trying to find Hawaiian music (other than Don Ho) he finally made contact with several "serious" Hawaiian composers. Today he presents the mainland debut of "Water (falls)", a three movement work for piano solo by Donald Reid Womack.
UNITED STATES - NEW JERSEY - We return to the mainland US for the
World Premiere of our commissioned work (see above).On to RUSSIA - 2 Songs by P. I. Tschaikovsky arranged by Sharon Davis for flute, clarinet & piano. The first is "NIGHT" from 6 Romances, Op. 73, 2. This is a richly textured song reminiscent of the final movement of the Pathetique Symphony. The second song, "PAINFULLY, SWEETLY", from 6 Romances, Op. 6, No.3, is a fleeting and quixotic melody with an ironic twist. The lyrics for these songs will be printed in the program....
Since we're nearby, we go to LATVIA for Suite Modale for flute & piano by Arnolds Sturms. This charming 5 movement work is an evocative piece with a folk element in each of the movements.
On to JAPAN (sort of !!) - We finish with selections from "Sonata Cho-Cho San" by Michael Webster. This work is based on themes from Puccini's Madame Butterfly. It is a huge work from which we have attempted to extract the most important sections. The music is familiar to anyone who knows this opera. We performed this last week in Suffern and there was more than one person who sang along!
Remembrance & Rebirth
April 10, 2010Our featured composer
Raymond WojcikRaymond Wojcik (b.1957) His recent activities as a composer have included a three-year position as composer-in-residence at the Cape May Music Festival (2004-2006), a release of a CD of his orchestral music entitled “Akin To Fire” on Albany Records and the recording of five more works for a second Albany Records release with the Moravian Philharmonic. Recent commissions have been from Duo Fresco, The Mid-Atlantic Center for the Arts, the New Jersey Youth Symphony, The South Hampton Chamber Music Society and The Conductors Institute at Bard. Performances of his works have been by the Grand Rapids Symphony, Bay-Atlantic Symphony, Colonial Symphony, NJ Youth Symphony, Bass School of Music Symphony, Memphis Youth Symphony, Amadeus Orchestra, and Southampton Chamber Music Society.
As a conductor he served as music director of the Garden State Philharmonic (1990-2000) and the Brunswick Symphony (1988-1990). He has served as music director and conductor of the Garden State Philharmonic, in which post he distinguished himself through innovative programming, award-winning educational programs and critically acclaimed performances. He has collaborated with celebrated soloists including Lang Lang, Claude Frank, Maria Bachmann, David Finckel, Charles Neidich, and Eugenia Zukerman, Additionally Mr. Wojcik has led the Hartford Symphony Orchestra, Amadeus Orchestra (U.K.), Rutgers Summerfest Orchestra, The Pleven Philharmonic (Bulgaria), The New Amsterdam Symphony, The New Jersey All-State Orchestra and many festival, theater and ballet orchestras.
Committed to cultivating classical audiences, Wojcik delivers the pre-concert Insight lectures for the International Orchestra Series at the State Theatre in New Brunswick, NJ. His educational projects for young students have received numerous foundation grants.
He holds a BM from the Manhattan School of Music, and an MA from the Lamont School of Music at the University of Denver. His composition studies were with David Schiff and Donald Keats, and horn with Clarendon van Norman and Martin Smith. Conducting studies have been with George Manahan, Michael Charry and Harold Farberman. Additional studies were at Juiliard, The Aspen School of Music and the Conductors Institute at Bard. He has been chosen for conducting masterclasses with Riccardo Muti, Leonard Slatkin and Pierre Boulez Wojcik has received grants and fellowships from The Argosy Foundation Fund for Contemporary Music, The New Jersey State Council on the Arts, The Westfield Coalition for the Arts, and the Frank and Lydia Bergen Foundation.
Raymond's work, "Between Worlds", was commissioned by the Palisades Virtuosi in memory of Harriet C. Levy, with funding from the family of Edward A. Levy. It is a 20 minute work with tremendous scope. Its emotional trajectory ranges from mysterious to anger to absurdity to great peace. It was received by the audience with such rapt attention that there was not s sound for a full 40 seconds after the end of the performance!
Other works on the program:Sonata No. 5, Op. 24 "Spring" - Allegro [corr. PV] - L.V. Beethoven (1770-1827)
This well known sonata for violin and piano was one of two commissioned by the wealthy banker, Count Moritz von Fries, and originally intended to be published together as a set of two sonatas under the same opus. However, due to a mistake at the publishing house, the two sonatas were eventually given consecutive opus numbers and printed separately. Thios opening movemment is one that we "corrupted" a few years ago and we have revisited it with great care, finding new ways to color and voice our arrangement. This joyous work set the tone for the evening's concert.
Elegy for clarinet & piano - Ferruccio Busoni (1866 - 1924)
Ferruccio Busoni was a child prodigy pianist and became a composer by the age of nine. The basic tenet of his philosophy for composition was to take the past and improve upon it. His music has a sense of familiarity about it, yet with a layer of mystery laid atop. This elegy was written in 1921 near the end of his life and exemplifies this trait. Busoni used the main theme of this elegy for an aria in his opera "Doktor Faust". There is a fascinating connection here between works on this program. On the second half of the concert we performed the world premiere of a set of songs by Lee Hoiby arranged for us by the composer (more about that later). One of Busoni's star pupils was Egon Petri, with whom Lee Hoiby studied composition! We love it when these little synchronicities creep into our concerts!
"Pavane pour un infante defuncte" - Maurice Ravel (1875-1937) (arr. Q. Maganini/PV)
This famous work has been arranged by many people for many different combinations of instruments. In fact the arrangement we chose to use was an amalgamated version using the original piano score and the arranged instrumental parts, creating our own arrangement in the end. Originally a solo piano work (1899), Ravel himself orchestrated it in 1910. The piece has over the years been played at various tempos, Ravel preferred that it not be performed too slowly, at one such concert he quipped "It's supposed to be 'Pavane for a Dead Princess', not 'Dead Pavane for a Princess' !"
Our commissioned work was performed next (see above) and then intermission.
"Wind-Space" (a 9-11 commemorative) - Brian Schober (b. 1951)
Mr. Schober has pursued an active career as a composer and performer throughout the United States and abroad. A native of New Jersey, Schober pursued his musical studies at the Eastman School of Music where his teachers included Samuel Adler and Joseph Schwantner in composition and Sue Seid and Russell Saunders in organ. He furthered his studies in Paris, studying composition with Olivier Messiaen and Betsy Jolas at the Paris Conservatory of Music while studying organ privately with Jean Guillou and André Isoir. Schober’s music spans all instrumental and vocal media. His music has been performed by the Gregg Smith Singers, The New York Treble Singers, Voces Novae et Antiquae, the Kitos Singers, nexus Arts, Scottish organist Kevin Bowyer, the percussion ensembles of The Juilliard School, Mannes School of Music and the University of Buffalo, and the New York Percussion Quartet. As a performer of organ music of all styles and periods, he has toured both the U.S. and Europe, particularly presenting concerts of new organ music. He has also performed with the new music group Speculum Musicae. A CD of works for chorus and organ recorded by the Gregg Smith Singers and the New York Treble Singers is issued by Ethereal Recordings, Manhattan Impromptus for piano, performed by Stephen Gosling, has been released by Capstone Records. He is presently Music Director of the First Congregational Church in Park Ridge, New Jersey.
“Wind-space” (a 9-11 commemorative work) [2007] for alto flute, bass clarinet and piano was composed for the group Palisades Virtuosi in response to their request for a piece in memory of the events of 9-11. Although, the piece does not relate in any specific way to those events, it evokes the idea of empty and open spaces and the wind which passes through, as indicated by the title. The writing was greatly influenced by the Japanese bamboo flute or shakuhachi. The alto flute acts as a catalyst for the work in that the other instruments as commentators to it. The three performers are treated very independently of each other and rarely play together except in a few dramatic moments.The three of us have our own images that come to mind as we perform this work - all of us have our memories of that day and this work is a time for us to access those memories and pay honor to those who died on 9-11.
"Also" & "Goodby, Goodby World" - Lee Hoiby (b. 1924)
Lee Hoiby is a major American composer of Musical, Opera, Orchestral and Chamber music. While we could never afford to commission him with our current financial structure, this arrangment for us by the composer was sponsored by Ron Levy. These two arias are from "Our Town" a score written for the Wilder play which is not publicly available. These two songs are both lovely and poignant examples of Mr. Hoiby's magnificent lyrical gift.
"The Raspberry Man" - William Vollinger (b. 1945)
What fun! This piece for narrator, flute, clarinet & piano is the story of an extraordinary individual who used to stand outside of a restaurant in New York City and blow raspberries at the passersby. It is a short, very funny and yet touching work and it was the perfect ending to our concert! Thank you Bill for writing this piece and sharing your talents with us!!
Music of William Vollinger has been performed by the Gregg Smith Singers and NY Vocal Arts Ensemble, whose performance of “Three Songs About the Resurrection” won first prize at the Geneva International Competition. “Violinist in the Mall” won the 2005 Friends and Enemies of New Music competition. His music has been performed and broadcast worldwide, published by API, Abingdon, Heritage, Lawson-Gould and Laurendale. Five works have been Editor’s Choices in the J.W. Pepper Catalogue. The New Orleans ensemble Musaica and soprano Liz Argus recently premiered “Duck Girl”. Parma Recordings will be releasing two new works for narrator in 2010.
PV & William Vollinger blowing raspberries!!!
For program notes from previous concerts please click here
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