Thursday, May 13, 2010

Alyssa Bowlby

Soprano Alyssa Bowlby sings and talks about heroines in music from Verdi and Mozart to Lerner & Loewe in a Guest Artist Series recital on Thursday May 13 at 8 pm in the Fulkerson Recital Hall on the HSU campus in Arcata. Tickets: $8/$3 students and seniors from HSU Ticket Office (826-3928) or at the door. An HSU Department of Music production.
Songs of Heroines by Guest Artist Alyssa Bowlby

In a program that highlights musical “Heroines,” soprano Alyssa Bowlby will describe as well as sing each of her selections from Mozart, Verdi, Beethoven and others, in an HSU Guest Artist recital at Fulkerson Hall on Thursday, May 13.

Her examples come from three operas by Verdi (including La Traviata) and two by Mozart (The Magic Flute and Abduction from the Seraglio.) She finds more heroines in Puccini’s La Boheme, Beethoven’s Fidelio, the Doll’s Song from Offenbach’s The Tales of Hoffman, as well in works by Schubert and Massenet.

Not all the examples are from grand opera. Bowlby also performs a song from Candide, the operetta by Leonard Bernstein first performed in 1956, and “ I Could Have Danced All Night” from the Lerner and Loewe musical, My Fair Lady. She will talk for a few minutes about each selection and how it relates to her theme.

Alyssa Bowlby is based in New York City, where she appears frequently with the Mimesis Ensemble. She has sung with Project Opera of Manhattan, Brooklyn Repertory Opera, the Garden State Opera, and Empire Opera of New York.

After being hailed by a Houston newspaper as “delightfully charming and touching” in her role of Musetta in the Houston Opera in the Heights production of La Boheme, she was invited to perform in five more operas there in the next three years. Later this year she will play Abigail Williams in the English language opera of Arthur Miller’s play, The Crucible, with the Empire Opera.

Alyssa Bowlby earned her BA and Phil Beta Kappa key at Haverford College, and her Masters from the Peabody Conservatory of Music. The Baltimore Sun called her singing “fearless” and “intense.” In 2007 she sang and was interviewed on NPR’s “All Things Considered.”

For her Humboldt State recital, she will be accompanied by HSU pianist John Chernoff.

Soprano Alyssa Bowlby appears in a Guest Artist Series recital on Thursday May 13 at 8 pm in the Fulkerson Recital Hall on the HSU campus in Arcata. Tickets: $8/$3 students and seniors from HSU Ticket Office (826-3928) or at the door. An HSU Department of Music production.

Media: Humboldt State Now, Arcata Eye

Sunday, May 09, 2010

University Singers & Humboldt Chorale

HSU University Singers and Humboldt Chorale concert features music inspired by poetry of Robert Frost, James Agee and Ogden Nash, on Sunday night, May 9 at at 8 p.m. in the Fulkerson Recital Hall on the HSU campus in Arcata. Tickets are $7 general, $3 students/seniors, from the HSU Ticket Office (826-3928) or at the door. Free to HSU students with ID. University Singers directed by Harley Muilenburg, Humboldt Chorale directed by Carol Ryder. Produced by HSU Music Department.
2010 University Singers. Click photo to enlarge.
Something Like A Star: Poems That Inspire Song

Poems by Robert Frost, Ogden Nash and others are the inspiration for vocal works sung by the HSU University Singers and the community-based Humboldt Chorale in their joint concert on Sunday night, May 9 in Fulkerson Recital Hall.

American choral composer Randall Thompson set seven poems by Robert Frost to music for the bicentennial of Amherst, Massachusetts, where Frost had lived. The University Singers will perform the seventh of these, “Choose Something Like A Star,” with its final lines: “So when at times the mob is swayed/To carry praise or blame too far,/We may choose something like a star/To stay our minds on and be staid.”

After a choral arrangement of “Tatkovina,” a traditional Macedonian folk song (with violin accompaniment by Amanda Lake), and the finale from Gilbert and Sullivan’s “The Gondoliers,” the University Singers perform a longer work, “Carmina Burana” by German composer Carl Orff. A 20th century piece, it is a scenic oratorio derived from a large group of medieval poems discovered in the early 19th century.

In its half of the concert, the Humboldt Chorale performs two pieces directly based on 20th century American poems. As part of his 2005 “Nocturnes,” choral composer Morten Lauridsen wrote music for a poem by 20th century American writer James Agee that begins: “Sure on this shining night/Of star made shadows round,/Kindness must watch for me/This side the ground.” Lauridsen received the Medal of Freedom in 2007.

The most famous 20th century American writer of light verse, Ogden Nash wrote a number of witty--and silly—poems about animals. Contemporary American composer Eric Whitacre set some of them to music. The result is “Animal Crackers,” also performed by the Humboldt Chorale.

The Chorale’s featured work is “Fancies” by English choral composer John Ritter, a set of songs meant to suggest the fleeting fancies that might occur to a poet on an idyllic summer night.

HSU students comprise the University Singers, directed by HSU Music professor Harley Muilenburg, while the Humboldt Chorale is a community-based group, directed by Carol McWhorter Ryder. John Chernoff provides piano accompaniment for the Singers, and Larry Pitts for the Chorale.

The HSU University Singers and Humboldt Chorale perform on Sunday night, May 9 at at 8 p.m. in the Fulkerson Recital Hall on the HSU campus in Arcata. Tickets are $7 general, $3 students/seniors, from the HSU Ticket Office (826-3928) or at the door. Free to HSU students with ID. Produced by HSU Music Department.

Media: Humboldt State Now, Arcata Eye

Friday, May 07, 2010

Humboldt Symphony

The Humboldt Symphony celebrates Cinco de Mayo with Latin and Latin-influenced music plus a virtuoso trumpet concerto on Friday night May 7 at 8 pm and Sunday afternoon May 9 at 3 pm in the Fulkerson Recital Hall on the HSU campus in Arcata. Tickets are $7 general, $3 students/seniors, from the HSU Ticket Office (826-3928) or at the door. Free to HSU students with ID. Conducted by Paul Cummings, produced by HSU Music Department.
Humboldt Symphony soloist Branden Lewis
A Symphonic Cinco de Mayo at HSU

The Humboldt Symphony celebrates Cinco de Mayo with a popular piece by a contemporary Mexican composer and other Latin and Latin influenced orchestral works, on Friday night May 7 and Sunday afternoon May 9 at Fulkerson Recital Hall. This annual spring concert also features trumpeter Branden Lewis, the student winner of this year’s Concerto Aria competition.

Danzón No. 2 by Mexican composer Arturo Márquez is the highlight of our program,” said Humboldt Symphony conductor Paul Cummings. “It has the Mexican culture written all over it, in terms of themes, rhythms, instrumentation and the overall style of the music.”

This piece became famous recently when conductor Gustavo Dudamel and the Simon Bolivar Youth Orchestra of Venezuela played it in its concerts around the world, including in the U.S. “It became wildly popular,” Cummings said, “and one of Dudamel’s signature pieces.” Dudamel is now music director of the Los Angeles Philharmonic.

Three other works on the Symphony program are notable not only for their Latin connection, but as orchestral works that began as compositions for piano.

French composer Emmanuel Chabrier wrote Habanera, his homage to the Spain he knew from his travels, originally for piano in 1885, and transcribed it for orchestra three years later. The Russian-born, American modernist master Igor Stravinsky (who knew and admired Chabrier’s work) composed Tango for piano in 1941, and adapted it for orchestra in 1953. Audiences at this concert can judge the differences for themselves, because pianist Emily Loeffler will play the piano version before the Symphony plays the orchestral version.

The third such piece is Souvenir de Porto Rico by Louis Moreau Gottschalk, adapted for orchestra by Thor Johnson. “Gottschalk was a 19th century American composer, and we don’t have many of those,” Cummings said, “at least whose music is still being performed.” Born in New Orleans and steeped in the music of that city, Gottschalk incorporated rhythms and styles that later came to be associated with jazz and ragtime. “He wrote very syncopated melodies—he was very much a pioneer of styles that are uniquely American.”

Gottschalk lived for a time in Puerto Rico and traveled widely in the Caribbean. “This piece is his reminiscence,” Cummings said, “and these syncopated rhythms and wide use of percussion have a definite Latin flavor.”

Not part of the Cinco de Mayo theme but definitely part of the spring concert event, the winner of this year’s HSU Concerto Aria competition, trumpeter Branden Lewis, plays the first movement of the Concerto for Trumpet and Orchestra by 20th century French composer Henri Tomasi. “Though there’s a fairly equal dialogue between the soloist and the ensemble,” Cummings said, “this is certainly a virtuoso piece for the trumpet.”

In the Concerto Aria competition, held in November, students select and play a piece with piano accompaniment that they propose to perform with orchestra or band. A panel of judges consisting of Music Department faculty and local professionals chose Branden Lewis for this year’s award.

The Humboldt Symphony spring concert is performed twice: on Friday night, May 7 at 8 pm, and on the following Sunday afternoon, May 9, at 3 pm. Both take place in the Fulkerson Recital Hall on the HSU campus in Arcata. Tickets are $7 general, $3 students/seniors, from the HSU Ticket Office (826-3928) or at the door. Free to HSU students with ID. Conducted by Paul Cummings, produced by HSU Music Department.

Media: TriCity Weekly, Humboldt State Now, Humboldt Beacon, Arcata Eye

Thursday, May 06, 2010

AM Jazz Band/ HSU Jazz Orchestra

HSU’s AM Jazz Band plays Coltrane, Ellington and more on Thursday May 6 at 8 p.m. in the Fulkerson Recital Hall. HSU Jazz Orchestra celebrates the 100th birthday of jazz immortal Mary Lou Williams with the first public performance of one of her compositions, and plays a tune by Arcata native son Nathan Smith on Saturday May 8 at 8 p.m. in the Fulkerson Recital Hall on the HSU campus in Arcata. Ticket prices for each concert are $7 general, $3 students/seniors, from the HSU Ticket Office (826-3928) or at the door. Free to HSU students with ID. Directed by Dan Aldag, produced by HSU Music Department.
Jazz Orchestra in Birthday Tribute to a Jazz Immortal

On her 100th birthday—Saturday May 8-- HSU Jazz Orchestra celebrates jazz immortal Mary Lou Williams, with the first public performance of her arrangement of one of her songs. The concert also features a song by a North Coast favorite son.

Together with jazz classics from the AM Jazz Band on Thursday, this is the final HSU jazz concert of the school year. Both concerts are in Fulkerson Recital Hall, beginning at 8.

Born on May 8, 1910, Mary Lou Williams played jazz piano in Pittsburgh beginning as a child, and went on the road to perform, write and arrange in the twenties and thirties. Her stellar career continued until her death in 1981. “Mary Lou Williams is perpetually contemporary,” wrote Duke Ellington in his autobiography. “Her writing and performing have always been a little ahead throughout her career. Her music retains, and maintains, a standard of quality that is timeless. She is like soul on soul."

A highlight of the Jazz Orchestra birthday concert is the world premiere public performance of the arrangement she wrote for the Duke Ellington band of her song "Ogeechee River Lullaby." It features local jazz vocalist Bill Allison.

The Jazz Orchestra will also play Williams’ first known composition, "Mess-a-Stomp," recorded in 1929, as well as several of her tunes from the 1930s (“Mary’s Idea,” “Big Jim Blues,” “Walkin’ and Swingin’”).

From her 1940s output, the Jazz Orchestra selects some seldom heard pieces, like "In The Land Of Oo-Bla-Dee" (which also features singer Bill Allison), as well as a section of her signature Zodiac Suite: “Scorpio.”

After withdrawing from performance in the 1950s to concentrate on charity work, Mary Lou Williams made a triumphant return in the 1957 Newport Jazz Festival, and never looked back. The Jazz Orchestra will play several of her late 1960s compositions, including “Aries Mood” and “New Musical Express.” “With their sometimes startling dissonances,” said orchestra director and HSU Music professor Dan Aldag, “these works show that Williams had kept up with the many changes in jazz.”

The Jazz Orchestra will play other works in addition to Mary Lou Williams' music, including “Recollection,” by Arcata favorite son, Nathan Smith. Smith graduated from Arcata High, earned music degrees in Florida and at the Eastman School of Music, and has won several awards for his compositions. In addition to leading a 10-piece band in New York, he transcribes older jazz compositions from recordings, and recreates scores for new performances. “In a nice piece of symmetry,” Dan Aldag notes, “his most recent transcribing work has been of some of Mary Lou Williams’ music.”

A few nights before the Jazz Orchestra concert, the AM Jazz Band performs other jazz classics, including tunes by John Coltrane, Sonny Rollins, Freddie Hubbard and Tito Puente. Philip Sagastume is featured on tenor sax on "I Got It Bad (And That Ain't Good)" by Duke Ellington.

The AM Jazz Band performs on Thursday, May 6, and the Jazz Orchestra on Saturday, May 9. Both concerts are in the Fulkerson Recital Hall at 8 pm, and prices are the same for each: $7 general, $3 students/seniors, from the HSU Ticket Office (826-3928) or at the door. Free to HSU students with ID. Both ensembles are directed by Dan Aldag, and the concerts are produced by HSU Music Department.
Mary Lou Williams in the 1930s
Media for concert: TriCity Weekly, Humboldt State Now, Humboldt Beacon, North Coast Journal, Arcata Eye

Sunday, May 02, 2010

Madrigal and Mad River Transit Singers

Love songs and three kinds of blues are the themes for the annual Madrigal Singers and Mad River Transit spring concert on Sunday May 2 at 8 pm in the Fulkerson Recital Hall on the HSU campus in Arcata. Tickets are $7 general, $3 students/seniors, from the HSU Ticket Office (826-3928) or at the door. Free to HSU students with ID. Directed by Harley Muilenburg, produced by HSU Music Department.
2010 Madrigal Singers
A Madrigal Comedy and Three Kinds of Blues

A classic evening of Renaissance love songs leads naturally into a modern set of three kinds of blues, in the annual spring concert of the HSU Madrigal Singers and the Mad River Transit jazz group, on Sunday May 2 in Fulkerson Recital Hall.

In the golden age of the English madrigal it was called a Madrigal Comedy: a concert of songs about love. The HSU Madrigal Singers performs songs of love’s season of spring, courtship, and love’s complications, before songs celebrating the culminating event that defines Shakespearian comedy: the wedding.

The songwriters include the traditional John Dowland, Thomas Morley and Robert Jones, and Henry Purcell’s “In These Delightful Pleasant Groves,” but also a movement from “Five Hebrew Love Songs” by contemporary composer Eric Whitacre.

The Mad River Transit jazz singers update these themes with blues tunes by John Coltrane, “Toots” Thielemans, Johnny Mercer and Harold Arlen. Soloists include Claire Bent, Sara Scibetta, Calista Labolle and Brandy Rose.

MRT singers are backed by the rhythm section of Darius Brotman on piano, Sam Reynolds on bass and Jonathan Kipp on drums.

The HSU Madrigal Singers and MRT perform on Sunday May 2 at 8 pm in the Fulkerson Recital Hall on the HSU campus in Arcata. Tickets are $7 general, $3 students/seniors, from the HSU Ticket Office (826-3928) or at the door. Free to HSU students with ID. Directed by Harley Muilenburg, produced by HSU Music Department.

Media: Arcata Eye, Humboldt State Now, Humboldt Beacon.
2010 Mad River Transit

Saturday, May 01, 2010

Calypso Band & Percussion Ensemble

HSU Calypso Band’s high-energy Caribbean dance music and a Percussion Ensemble tribute to Led Zeppelin, plus drums of Africa, Hawaii and Mexico on Saturday May 1 at 8 pm in the Van Duzer Theatre on the HSU campus in Arcata. Tickets are $7 general, $3 students/seniors, from the HSU Ticket Office (826-3928) or at the door.
Homage to Bonzo and Queen of the Bands

The HSU Percussion Ensemble pays tribute to a Hawaiian war god and a god of rock drumming, and two smaller percussion groups play ragtime, Mexican, West African and Brazilian tunes. Then the HSU Calypso Band takes over with its high-energy Caribbean and African dance music. This often-anticipated annual spring concert takes the Van Duzer Theatre stage on Saturday night, May 1.

An ode to rock drumming, especially of Led Zeppelin’s John “Bonzo” Bonham, highlights the HSU Percussion Ensemble set. “The core theme is taken from two Led Zeppelin tunes,” said Percussion Ensemble director Howard Kaufman, “but there are also references to the Paul Butterfield Blues Band and Bo Diddley.”

“Bonham” is by Christopher Rouse, who also composed the Ensemble’s second featured work, “Ku-Ka-llimoku.” Kaufman describes it as “a savage, propulsive war dance,” in honor of the Hawaiian god Ku.

The Ensemble also plays “Head Talk” by Mark Ford and “Alone and Together,” a piece by HSU Music professor Eugene Novotney, inspired by tap dancing and East Indian music.

Then the HSU Marimba Band performs two ragtime pieces, as well as folkloric music of Mexico. The HSU World Percussion Group ends the concert’s first half with traditional Mandeng Drumming of West Africa, and a Brazilian samba, which features 45 drummers, singers and dancers.

The famed Humboldt State Calypso Band takes over for the second half of the evening, featuring the classic composition by Ray Holman, “Queen of the Bands,” and other dance tunes with rhythms from the Caribbean and Africa. This event is a now traditional pre-finals fling for HSU students, and the Calypso band’s only Van Duzer appearance until winter.

The annual spring performance by the Humboldt Calypso Band and HSU percussion groups happens on Saturday May 1 at 8 pm in the Van Duzer Theatre Theatre on the HSU campus in Arcata. Tickets are $7 general, $3 students/seniors, from the HSU Ticket Office (826-3928) or at the door. First 50 HSU students free with ID.

Media: Arcata Eye, North Coast Journal, Humboldt State Now, Humboldt Beacon
Caleb Harris

Guest pianist Caleb Harris performs Beethoven and Chopin before accompanying soprano Elisabeth Harrington and playing piano duos with Daniela Mineva at the special time of 5 pm on Saturday May 1 in Fulkerson Recital Hall on the HSU campus in Arcata. Tickets: $8/$3 students and seniors from HSU Ticket Office (826-3928) or at the door. An HSU Department of Music production.
Beethoven in the Afternoon--and Puccini, Chopin, etc.

A rare late afternoon performance features guest pianist Caleb Harris, who plays two solo works before combining with HSU Music faculty Elisabeth Harrington and Daniela Mineva, on Saturday May 1 at 5 pm in the Fulkerson Recital Hall.

Currently teaching at University of Northern Colorado and conducting the Greeley Philharmonic Orchestra, Caleb Harris has a varied career as a piano soloist, conductor and vocal coach. For this HSU concert, Harris performs Beethoven’s Piano Sonata #17, known as the Tempest Sonata, because it was reputedly inspired by the Shakespeare play of that title. It was composed in 1802, generally designated as the end of Beethoven’s early period.

Also in the solo half of the program, Harris performs several works by Chopin, including Scherzo #1, a piano Etude and the Fantasy Impromptu.

Then Harris accompanies soprano and HSU Music professor Elisabeth Harrington who performs an aria from Puccini’s La Boheme and songs by Richard Strauss. Pianist and HSU Music professor Daniela Mineva joins Harris to play two pieces for two pianos: Scaramouche by 20th century French composer Darius Milhaud, and Paganini Variations by 20th century Polish composer Witold Lutoslawski.

In addition to his concert, Caleb Harris will conduct a piano Master Class for pianists and voice students on Friday April 30 at 12 pm in Fulkerson Recital Hall. This class is free and open to all.

Guest pianist Caleb Harris performs with Elisabeth Harrington and Daniela Mineva at a special time of 5 pm on Saturday May 1 in Fulkerson Recital Hall on the HSU campus in Arcata. Tickets: $8/$3 students and seniors from HSU Ticket Office (826-3928) or at the door. An HSU Department of Music production.

Media: Arcata Eye, Humboldt State Now, Humboldt Beacon