Archive 2006-2016 pre-production information, Humboldt State University Department of Music Events in Arcata, California. HSU Ticket Office: 707 826-3928. Music Department: 707 826-3531.
HSU student Michael Donovan was awarded the $1000 prize in the John W. DeLodder music composition competition on May 4 in Fulkerson Recital Hall.
Donovan’s winning entry was a composition entitled “Walled City.” “The piece is a ten-minute work written for a string quartet,” said composition professor Brian Post, “reminiscent of music composed in the early 20th century.”
Humboldt resident John DeLodder created the competition in conjunction with the HSU Music Department. “It is designed to give budding composers a chance to spend more time writing music,” Post explained. “Mr. DeLodder plays a brass instrument himself and has had a great appreciation for music because of its positive influence on members of his family.”
DeLodder presented the award to Donovan at the HSU composers read-through recital. “The recital is a chance for students to have their works performed, to help them determine how to refine the pieces for future performances, as well as the fall competition,” Post said.
Although this spring’s winner is a music composition student, the every-semester competition is open to all HSU students.
University Singers soloists include Raul Yepez, Olivia Bright, Mark Berman, Lorena Tamayo, Catherine Rippetoe, Chris Parreira and Jessie Rawson. Carmina Burana and Into the Woods with University Singers & Humboldt Chorale
Humboldt State University Singers perform selections from the popular cantata Carmina Burana, and the Humboldt Chorale sings music by Purcell, Mozart and Sondheim in their joint concert on Sunday evening May 10 in Fulkerson Recital Hall. Carmina Burana, an audience favorite that has influenced popular music from Star Wars to hip hop, is a cantata by 20th century German composer and educator Carl Orff. Recorded more often than Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony, it is based on a set of irreverent songs and poems by medieval minstrels and monks. The New York Times described it as “accessible and fun.” Directed by Harley Muilenburg, the University Singers perform selections from Carmina Burana featuring soloists Mark Berman, Matthew Nelson, Meagan Blachly, Raul Yepez, Olivia Bright, Chris Parreria, Catherine Rippetoe and Jessie Rawson. The group also sings “City Called Heaven” a traditional song arranged by contemporary educator Josephine Poelinitz, featuring soloist Lorena Tamayo. Humboldt Chorale, a community choral group directed by Elisabeth Harrington, performs sacred music by 17th century Baroque composer Henry Purcell, and Mozart’s sunny Regina Coeli. “She’s Like the Swallow” is a Newfoundland folk song about love, adapted by contemporary American composer Luigi Zaninelli. The Chorale also performs two songs by Stephen Sondheim from the musical Into the Woods: “No One is Alone” and “Children Will Listen.” The Humboldt Chorale and University Singers perform on Sunday May 10 at 8 p.m. in Fulkerson Recital Hall. Tickets from HSU Ticket Office (826-3928) or at the door: $8 general, $5 seniors and children, HSU students with ID admitted free. Produced by HSU Music department.
Media: Times-Standard Urge Magazine, Mad River Union, Humboldt State Now, Lumberjack.
2015 University Singers: (not in order pictured; click photo to enlarge) Brynn Allen, McKinlee Burkhardt, Meagan Blachly, Berenice Ceja, Olivia Bright, Michelle Hy, Ana Ceja, Emily Hilkere, Ana Cruz, Hannah Kelly, Stevy Marquez, Joselyne Loaiza,Jessie Rawson, Nawlah Madu-Powell,
Cora Rickert, Allie Merten,
Julia Gotico, Krishel Moura, Katherine Nunes-Siciliani, Catherine Rippetoe, Lorena Tamayo, Kenneth Bridges, Alex Albin,
Fidel Cortez, Mark Berman,Victor Guerrero, Carey Dakin,Bryant Kellison , Stefan Flores,
Luis Landin, Michael Levan, David Paden, Carter Long, Joseph Mayer, Matthew Nelson, Raul Yepez, John Pettlon, Christopher Parreira, Ryan Woempner.
Program Carmina Burana by Carl Orff Fortuna Imperatrix Mundi (Fortune, Empress of the World)
1. O Fortuna
Mark Berman, Speaker
2. Fortune plango vulnera
Mark Berman, Speaker
I. Primo vere (In Springtime)
3. Veris leta facies
Mark Berman, Speaker
4. Omnia sol temperat
Mark Berman, Speaker; Matthew Nelson, Baritone
5. Ecce gratum
Mark Berman, Speaker Uf dem anger (On the Lawn)
10. Were diu werlt alle min
Mark Berman, Speaker
15. Amor volat undique
Mark Berman, Speaker; Meagan Blachly, Soprano
16. Dies, nox et omina
Mark Berman, Speaker; Raul Yepez, Tenor
17. Stetit puella
Mark Berman, Speaker; Olivia Bright, Soprano
18. Circa mea pectora
Mark Berman, Speaker; Matthew Nelson, Baritone
20. Veni, veni, venias
Mark Berman, Speaker
21. In truitina
Mark Berman, Speaker; Catherine Rippetoe, Alto
22. Tempus est iocundum
Mark Berman, Speaker; Christopher Parreira, Bass
Jessie Rawson, Soprano
23. Dulcissime
Jessie Rawson, Soprano
24. Ave formosissima
25. O Fortuna (Fortune, Empress of the World) City Called Heaven by Josephine Poelintz
Lorena Tamayo, Mezzo-Soprano
Notes Carmina Burana by Carl Orff
"Carmina Burana provides music that Carl Orff hoped would cut across social, educational, and temporal boundaries to engage audiences in a powerful expression of music. For his text, Orff turned to a collection of irreverent medieval songs and poems discovered in 1803 at the Bavarian monastery of Benediktbeuren. Hence, Carmina Burana, or "Songs of Beuren." In these profane lyrics of minstrels and monks long dead, Orff heard clearly the voice of the human condition, with its indestructible hunger for the sensual pleasures of the world persisting through the capricious turns of Fortune's wheel. Setting this text to music of primitive force rivaled in our time only by Stravinsky's Rite of Spring, Orff combined the medieval and the modern in a timeless vision of humanity's vitality and endurance.
Carl Orff (1895-1982) was a German composer and educator. After studying at the Academy of Music at Munich, he helped to found the Günter School there in 1924. As a composer Orff wished to simplify music, to return to its primitive components. He attempted to adapt old monodic forms to modern tastes, employing dissonant counterpoint and vigorous rhythms. In 1960 he became head of the Orff School for Music in Munich. His work in music education has attracted a considerable following in the United States." --from Harley Muilenburg "Carl Orff is among the most misunderstood and thereby underestimated composers of the last century – which is odd when you consider that one work, Carmina Burana, is among the most popular pieces of music ever written. There is at least one performance of it somewhere in the world every single day of the year, and that has been going on for the last 30 years. And with over 300 different recordings extant in the catalogue today, it easily outranks even Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony."
--Tony Palmer classical music.com
"One of music's most resilient creatures is on the loose again, making tracks across the landscape of mainstream entertainment. It leaves traces on the vaguely medieval choruses of John Williams's score to ''Star Wars: Episode I -- The Phantom Menace,'' and a heavier imprint on ''Hate Me Now,'' the creepingly catchy hip-hop hit by Nas. Its rhythmic echoes even resound behind a recent promotion for the ''South Park'' film.
What is that blasted music, ever present on soundtracks and in television commercials, surfacing everywhere from the video arcade to the ice skating rink? It is ''Carmina Burana,'' a cantata composed in the 1930's by the German music educator Carl Orff around a group of 13th-century ballads by wandering monks.
As the most likely musical background for jousting nobles or scary monsters, used in films from ''Excalibur'' to ''Natural Born Killers,'' Orff''s work defines the sound of the pop Gothic... Charlotte Church, the 13-year-old Welsh soprano sensation, sings from it on her album, ''Voice of an Angel,'' as did Barbra Streisand before her. Nancy Kerrigan and Torvil and Dean have skated to it, video game players annihilate enemies to it, and the German industrial rock group Einsturzende Neubauten and the teen-pop heartthrobs 98 Degrees have used it to herald the opening of their shows.
The piece's ubiquity is more pronounced in the classical world, where it is a staple for choruses, orchestras, opera companies and ballet corps.
''The audience turns out for it,'' said Julie Rushbrook, the outgoing president of the Grace Choral Society of Brooklyn. ''That's the bottom line for a community choral society. It really helps pay the bills.''
...It may not make for a sound legal argument, but the idea that ''Carmina Burana'' somehow belongs to everyone instinctively rings true. Its tenacious hold on the public imagination suggests a power that transcends most critics' dismissals of the piece as naive and overwrought. ''Carmina Burana'' exists between the high and the low, the modern and the traditional, reminding listeners just how seductive such border crossings can be.....
Even its defenders value ''Carmina Burana'' particularly because it is accessible and fun...
"The shadow of Nazism stains Orff's legacy. It is the main reason the cantata was not performed in the United States until 20 years after its debut... Orff never joined the Nazi Party, although he cooperated with it to survive." --Ann Powers in New York Times June 14, 1999 City Called Heaven by Josephine Poelintz
"Poelinitz’s City Called Heaven expresses the deep longing a person feels during their pilgrimage through life. While the choir “trudges” toward the goal, the pleading, improvisatory-like solo lines evoke yearning for the heavenly home."
-- from Harley Muilenburg
"Josephine Poelinitz is an Elementary Music Specialist in the Chicago Public Schools. Her arrangement of City Called Heaven, a “sorrow song” performed in the style of “surge-singing,” has become a favorite of choirs of all ages." --Dordt College
O Sing Unto the Lord (Psalm 96:1) by Henry Purcell
(1659-1695)
edited and arranged by Norman Greyson
Magnificat: My Soul doth Magnify the Lord by Henry Purcell
edited and transcribed by Harold Aks
Regina Coeli by W. A. Mozart
(1756-1791)
She’s Like the Swallow (Newfoundland Folk Song) adapted and arranged by Luigi Zaninelli
From Into the Woods by Stephen Sondheim:
“Children Will Listen”
“No one is Alone” arranged by Mark Brymer
Notes Regina Coeli by Mozart
"The sunny C-major Regina Coeli, K. 276, is the last of three settings Mozart made of this antiphon in praise of the Virgin. Its autograph score is lost so its date of composition is conjectural. Scholars believe that its stylistic similarities to the precisely dated Dominican Vespers place it as a work from 1779. Among its many felicities is the thrice-repeated "Alleluia" whose rhythm immediately recalls in the listener a somewhat familiar chorus by Handel, though it is thought unlikely that Mozart knew Messiah in 1779."
-- Copyright (c) 1997 by John W. Ehrlich
She's Like the Swallow
"She’s Like the Swallow is a distinctive Newfoundland folk song about the yearning for and remembrance of love... The setting performed tonight... is by Luigi Zaninelli (b. 1932). A native of New Jersey, Zaninelli was discovered at an early age by Gian-Carlo Menotti who brought him to the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia to pursue studies. His studies at Curtis culminated in his appointment to the faculty there. Since then, Zaninelli has been the conductor and arranger for Metropolitan Opera soprano Anna Moffo, composer-in-residence at the University of Calgary, Banff School of Fine Arts and, since 1973, the composer-in-residence at the University of Southern Mississippi."
--Dr. Robert Duff
Saturday, May 09, 2015
Party On Endor with HSU Jazz Orchestra
HSU Jazz Orchestra plays new tunes by Arcata’s recording artist Nathan Parker Smith and band grad Dan Fair as well as student originals and jazz classics of several eras on Saturday May 9 in Fulkerson Recital Hall. Now based in New York, Nathan Parker Smith grew up in Arcata. The Jazz Orchestra performs “Rhetoric Machine” from Not Dark Yet, an album by the Nathan Parker Smith Large Ensemble released in October. Also highlighting the Jazz Orchestra spring concert is a new tune by HSU grad Dan Fair called “Amazonia,” as well as his arrangement of “Summer Song” by steelband composer Cliff Alexis.
Current Jazz Orchestra members contribute two tunes to the program: “Party on Endor” by alto sax player Kyle McInnis, and “Fire Crayon Drawing” by bassist Ryan Woempner. Baritone saxophonist Lauren Strella steps to the microphone to sing on her arrangement of Herbie Hancock’s “Butterfly.” Jazz classics are not neglected when the band performs a 1960s arrangement of the Duke Ellington standard “Perdido.” Miles Davis is represented by a tune he played in the 60s (“Joshua”) and another from the 80s (“Tutu.”) Saxophonist Kyle McInnis is featured on “Roman Notes” by contemporary big band jazz artist John LaBarbera. HSU Jazz Orchestra performs on Saturday May 9 at 8 p.m. in Fulkerson Recital Hall. Tickets from HSU Ticket Office (826-3928) or at the door: $8 general, $5 seniors and children, HSU students with ID admitted free. Directed by Dan Aldag, produced by HSU Music department.
Media: Times-Standard Urge Magazine, Mad River Union, Humboldt State Now.
"The Jazz Orchestra program on Saturday, May 9 will include a number of pieces composed or arranged by current and former HSU students and a native of Arcata.
Current Jazz Orchestra members Kyle McInnis (alto sax) and Ryan Woempner (bass) composed "Party On Endor" and "Fire Crayon Drawing," respectively. The band's baritone saxophonist Lauren Strella arranged Herbie Hancock's "Butterfly" and will sing on it. Recent HSU grad Dan Fair has two pieces on the concert, his composition "Amazonia" and his arrangement of "Summer Song," composed by Cliff Alexis for steelband.
"Rhetoric Machine" was composed by Arcata-born-and-raised Nathan Parker Smith, who now leads his own band (the Nathan Parker Smith Large Ensemble) in New York City. "Rhetoric Machine" comes from Smith's first album, Not Dark Yet, released last fall.
The rest of the program consists of "Roman Notes" by John LaBarbera, a feature for alto saxophonist McInnis, two tunes associated with different periods of Miles Davis's career, "Joshua" (from the early 60s) and "Tutu" (from the mid-80s). The former was composed by Victor Feldman and arranged by Mark Taylor, and the latter composed by Marcus Miller and arranged by Michael Philip Mossman. Mossman also wrote the new arrangement of Sonny Rollins' classic calypso tune, "St. Thomas."
Valve trombonist Juan Tizol composed "Perdido" for Duke Ellington, and Ellington wrote the first arrangement of it. In the early 1960s, Ellington asked Gerald Wilson to write a new arrangement of the tune, and that is the version we will play."
--Dan Aldag
Friday, May 08, 2015
Guest Conductor for Humboldt Symphony
Humboldt Symphony hosts a guest conductor and guest pianist to join HSU pianist Daniela Mineva on Mozart’s Concerto for Two Pianos on Friday evening May 8 and Sunday afternoon May 10 in Fulkerson Recital Hall. Guest conductor Anna Binneweg is music director and conductor of the Londontowne Symphony Orchestra and the Anne Arundel Community College Symphony, where she teaches. Both are in Maryland. She has conducted at the Kennedy Center in Washington and the Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles, among other prestigious venues. The Baltimore Sun called her “a rising national star.”
“We’re excited to have Anna here to conduct and to work with our student in the week leading up to the concerts,” said Humboldt Symphony director Paul Cummings. “Daniela Mineva knows her as a colleague from Michigan State, and she is also a colleague of mine—we’ve both served as officers of the College Orchestra Directors Association.”
Professor Mineva will play the Mozart Concerto for Two Pianos with guest pianist Dahao Guo, a graduate of the Eastman School of Music who has performed in China, Germany and Spain as well as the U.S. This work has been called one of Mozart’s most engaging concertos, which he wrote for himself and his sister to play. Dr. Binneweg will conduct this concerto as well as Symphony # 8 by 19th century Russian composer Antonin Dvorak. In selecting this Dvorak work as one of the 50 greatest symphonies, music critic Tom Service praised it for “indelible melodies” cast in “crystal-clear orchestration.” Paul Cummings will conduct “Songs of Eternity” by contemporary American composer Mark Del Porto. “It’s a short piece but it has real epic dimensions,” Cummings said. “It calls upon the whole symphony, and the full potential of every instrument." This piece won the composition award from the College Orchestra Directors Association in 2013. Humboldt Symphony performs on Friday May 8 at 8 p.m. and Sunday May 10 at 3 p.m. in Fulkerson Recital Hall. Tickets from HSU Ticket Office (826-3928) or at the door: $8 general, $5 seniors and children, HSU students with ID admitted free. Produced by HSU Music department.
Media: cover of Times-Standard Urge Magazine, Mad River Union, Humboldt State Now.
Piano Concerto #10 for Two Pianos by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Daniela Mineva performs
Mozart concerto
"Although the music that Mozart wrote for more than one pianist was usually designed for himself and the company of a wealthy patron or a star pupil, it was probably inevitable that he would compose a concerto expressly to perform with his sister. The Double Concerto in E-flat major, written in the late 1770s, was conceived for the famous sibling act that was now grown up and had long ago stopped going on the road. It is one of his most engaging concertos. Throughout the work, Mozart delights in the almost operatic interplay of the two instruments, not to mention the wondrous racket of racing scales, rumbling Alberti bass lines, and clangorous trills—all in duplicate. The piece, however, is no mere stunt. It is a work of maturity, significance, and—particularly in the glorious slow movement—truly personal expression, but the sheer joy of sociability—of sharing music and friendship across two keyboards—is never absent." --Phillip Huscher, Program Notes for the Chicago Symphony
Symphony No. 8 by Antonin Dvořák
Dr. Anna Binneweg conducts
Dvorak symphony
"Dvořák does have a gift that neither of his symphonic predecessors had in the same way, which is that he could compose a seemingly unending torrent of indelible melodies, and he could cast them in crystal-clear orchestration. What's more, in the Eighth Symphony he found a way simultaneously to serve his melodic over-endowment while also creating a kind of symphonic discourse that was definitively his own."
--Tom Service, "50 Greatest Symphonies" series, the Guardian
"Something remarkable happened in the history of music during the 19th century: composers of symphonic music increasingly turned away from happy or cheerful feelings in favor of dramatic or even tragic ones. Instead of the light and unclouded tone found in many major works by Haydn or Mozart, Romantic composers predominantly used darker colors...
There were two great exceptions to this general trend: Mendelssohn in the first half of the century, and Dvorák in the second half. Both had the unusual gift of writing radiantly happy music in an era where such an approach was often taken for either conservatism or naïveté. It was neither: it was merely a sign of a different artistic personality...
Dvorák's Eighth opens with an expressive melody in G minor that prepares the entrance of another theme, a playful idea in G major first given to the solo flute. A dynamic sonata exposition soon gets underway. Dvorák "overshoots the mark" as he bypasses the expected secondary key, D major, in favor of a more remote but even brighter-sounding B major. The development section works up quite a storm, but it subsides when the playful main theme returns, now played by the English horn instead of the flute (two octaves lower than before). The recapitulation ends with a short but very energetic coda.
The second movement ("Adagio") begins with a simple string melody in darker tonal regions (E-flat major/C minor) that soon reaches bright C major where it remains. The main theme spawns various episodes, in turn lyrical and passionate. After a powerful climax, the movement ends in a tender pianissimo.
The third movement ("Allegretto grazioso") is neither a minuet nor a scherzo but an "intermezzo" like the third movements of Brahms's First and Second Symphonies. Its first tune is a sweet and languid waltz; its second, functioning as a "trio," sounds more like a Bohemian folk dance. After the return of the waltz, Dvorák surprises us by a very fast ("Molto vivace") Coda, in which commentators have recognized a theme from one of Dvorák's earlier operas. But this Coda consists of exactly the same notes as the lilting "trio" melody, only in a faster tempo, with stronger accents, and in duple instead of triple meter...
Dvorák's handling of form is indebted to Beethoven and Brahms, but he filled out the form with melodies of an unmistakably Czech flavor and a joviality few composers at the time possessed... The music is always cheerful and optimistic, yet it doesn't lack grandeur."
'Gentlemen, in Bohemia the trumpets never call to battle -- they always call to the dance!' (Conductor Rafael Kubelik during a rehearsal of the trumpet fanfare opening the last movement of Dvorák's Eighth Symphony.)" --Peter Laki, Kennedy Center Program Notes
Songs of Eternity by Mark Del Porto
Paul Cummings conducts
Del Porto work
"This piece is so new there isn't much information about it but certainly you would say it is neo-Romantic, of the style of the late 19th century. So think in terms of Bruckner or Mahler, or in the early 20th century, Strauss and Sibelius. It's strongly neo-Romantic in its sweeping, epic proportions.
It's only about ten minutes long but it has real epic dimensions to it. It calls upon the entire symphony, often playing in extreme ranges, at the very top of the potential of all instruments. It's got a lot of rises and falls, peaks and valleys and swells. It doesn't follow any traditional form but it's a very well constructed piece.
This piece won the 2013 composition award from the College Orchestra Directors Association, so it's being played all over the country now. I met Mark Del Porto at a CODA conference in 2014 and he was thrilled. Getting a premiere is great, but composers are much more excited by the second, third, fourth performances of their work."
--from an interview with Paul Cummings, who conducts the Humboldt Symphony in this work.
Sunday, May 03, 2015
Soloists for MRT include Lorena Tamayo, Jessie Rawson, Ian Alexander, Catherine Rippetoe and Jordan Kramlich. Love Songs and Chili with Madrigals & MRT
HSU Madrigal Singers perform a program of love songs, and Mad River Transit sings blues, a jazz waltz, a Martin Luther King tribute and a swinging chili recipe on Sunday May 3 in Fulkerson Recital Hall. Madrigal singers Ana Ceja, Erin Corrigan and Edrees Nassir perform “Say Love If Ever Thou Didst Find” by Renaissance composer Thomas Morley. Catherine Rippetoe sings “The Lone Wild Bird,” arranged by Madrigals director Harley Muilenburg. The singers combine on the romantic ballad “Midsummer Song” by English composer Frederick Delius, and Orlando di Lasso’s madrigal “O Eyes of My Beloved.”
Soloists
for Madrigal Singers include Ana Cejar, Erin Corrigan, Catherine Rippetoe and
Edrees Nassir.
Also on the program are three excerpts from the 2009 Patrick Hawes album “Song of Songs,” with solo by soprano Kellie Ventura. “Hawes’ choral writing is marked by flowing lines and beautiful harmonies,” said Muilenburg. “The keyboard accompaniment by John Chernoff provides contrasting music rich with rhythmic drive.” Mad River Transit singers continue the evening with blues, a jazz waltz by famed pianist Bill Evans and a quick-witted novelty number that provides a musical recipe for Chili Con Carne. Jesse Carpentier solos on a tribute to Martin Luther King, Jr.: MLK by the British rock group U2. Other soloists and improvisers include Lorena Tamayo, Jessie Rawson, Ian Alexander, Catherine Rippetoe and Jordan Kramlich. John Chernoff accompanies both groups on keyboards. Madrigal and MRT Singers perform on Sunday May 3 at 8 p.m. in Fulkerson Recital Hall. Tickets from HSU Ticket Office (826-3928) or at the door: $8 general, $5 seniors and children, HSU students with ID admitted free. Directed by Harley Muilenburg, produced by HSU Music department.
Media: Times-Standard "Urge," Mad River Union, Humboldt State Now
2015 Madrigal Singers (not in order pictured; click photo to enlarge):
Ariana Bustos, Sandee Castaneda, Tiffany Casparis, Erin Corrigan, Ana Ceja, Jessica Currow, Michelle Latner, Catherine Rippetoe, Robyn Strong, Rosemary Torres, Kellie Ventura, Victor Guerrero, Maximilian Cox, Fidel Garzia, Dylan Kinser, John Pettlon, Edrees Nassir, Felipe Pezzoli, Jeremy Rodda, John Schutt, Jaime Sanchez, Leonardo Simmons. Keyboards: John Chernoff. Directed by Harley Muilenburg.
Notes from director Harley Muilenburg:
HSU Madrigal Singers present a program of Madrigals and songs of love from the 1600’s and the 1900’s.
Featured in the program will be a madrigal by Thomas Morley with solos sung by Ana Ceja, Erin Corrigan, and Edrees Nassir. This Madrigal examines the nature of the pursuit of young love.
The singers will perform three excerpts from Patrick Hawes’s Song of Songs. Hawes’s choral writing is marked by flowing lines and beautiful harmonies. The keyboard accompaniment provides contrasting music rich with rhythmic drive. Frederick Delius’s Midsummer Song is an ABA romantic ballad with a Madrigal type la la section in the middle of the form. The singers will close the program with di Lasso’s beautiful madrigal O Eyes of my Beloved.
Madrigal Singers Program:
Say Love If Ever Thou Didst Find by Thomas Morley
Ana Ceja, Soprano; Erin Corrigan, Alto; Edrees Nassir, Baritone
From Song of Songs by Patrick Hawes
Kellie Ventura, soprano
Rhapsody
Love’s Promise
Song of Songs
The Lone Wild Bird arr. Harley Muilenburg
Catherine Rippetoe, alto
Midsummer Song by Frederick Delius O Eyes of My Beloved by Orlando di Lasso Fie on Sinful Fantasy by George Shearing
2015 Mad River Transit Olivia Bright ,Jessie Rawson, Jordan Kramlich, Catherine Rippetoe, Jesse Carpentier, Lorena Tamayo, Ana Ceja, Linh Pham, Anna Duchi, Lizzie Thorne, Ian Alexander, Christian Lesko, Sean Laughlin, Jeremy Rodda, Joshua Roa, Alberto Rodriguez, Alberto Zamora, Luke Smetana, Daniel Szylewicz, Corey Tamondong , Greta Goshom, Mari Harsch, Ian Taylor, Andrew Henderson, Ryan Woempner. Keyboards: John Chernoff. MRT’s night of singing includes classic vocal jazz featuring Claire Fisher’s Latin arrangement of the German folk song “Du, Du, Leigst Mir Im Herzen.” The program includes a jazz waltz, Bobby McFerrin’s 23rd Psalm, and the beautiful song MLK, written in memory of Martin Luther King. Jesse Carpentier will be the soloist.
MRT Program
Moanin’ by Lambert, Hendricks & Ross
Solo: Jessie Rawson
Improv: Jessie, Lorena, Ian, Linh Olivia, Alberto
MLK arr. Bob Chilcott
Jesse Carpentier
Le Nommage by Kerry Marsh and Julia Dollison
Improv: Sean, Jordan, Jessie, Olivia, Alberto
23rd Psalm by Bobby McFerrin Chili con Carne by Anders Edenroth Du, Du, Leigst Mir Im Herzen arr. Claire Fisher Blues in the Night arr. Muilenburg Waltz For Debby by Bill Evans, arr. Muilenburg & Lorena Tamayo
Improv: Jessie, Catherine, Lorena, Christian
Saturday, May 02, 2015
Calypso Band Dance Rhythms Return
HSU Calypso Band brings its authentic Caribbean dance rhythms home after a triumphant northern California tour, and the Percussion Ensemble features a work highlighting Hawaiian rhythms on Saturday May 2 in the Van Duzer Theatre. Back for its second concert this spring, the Percussion Ensemble presents for the first time this year a 1978 work by American composer Christopher Rouse called Ku-Ka-Illimoku, evoking indigenous Hawaiian rhythms. The performance also features 24 dancers choreographed by HSU Dance professor Sharon Butcher. The Percussion Ensemble also performs Marimba Spiritual by Japanese composer Minoru Miki and a reprise of Toccata for Percussion by Mexico’s foremost composer Carlos Chavez. The HSU World Percussion Group presents authentic Afro-Cuban folkloric music based on the traditions of the Yoruba people of Nigeria. Then in what has become a pre-finals tradition, the HSU Calypso Band takes over for the rest of the high-energy evening. This year’s highlights include two Panorama classics by Len “Boogsie” Sharpe from the island of Trinidad: “Misbehave” and “Woman is Boss.” The Calypso Band and its more than 40 steeldrums recently returned from a northern California tour, playing to enthusiastic audiences in Santa Rosa, Petaluma, Tomales, San Rafael and Berkeley. The HSU Percussion Ensemble and Calypso Band perform on Saturday May 2 beginning at 8 p.m. in the Van Duzer Theatre. Tickets from HSU Ticket Office (826-3928) or at the door: $10 general, $5 seniors and children, $3 HSU students. Directed by Eugene Novotney and Howard Kaufman, produced by HSU Music department.
Media: Times-Standard "Urge," Mad River Union, Humboldt State Now
The featured work on the program is Ku-Ka-Ilimoku, composed in 1978 by Christopher Rouse on commission from the Syracuse Symphony Percussion Ensemble.
The composer writes:
"In Hawaiian mythology, Ku is perhaps the most fundamental and important of gods, occupying a place similar to that of Zeus in Greek mythology or Odin in Norse legend. Ku is manifested in several forms: as Ku-Ka-Ilimoku he represents the god of war. Thus this work for percussion ensemble is best viewed as a savage, propulsive war dance. Hawaiian chants are often based on as few as two pitches, and Hawaiian percussion emphasizes short, repetitive patterns. Underlying this surface simplicity is a wealth of subtle rhythmic inflection and variation. I incorporated this diversity to great effect, creating a tightly knit, exhilarating work. Although indigenous instruments are not employed, the timbre of their voices is evoked. The dynamic power of the Western instruments adds an intense level of ferocity to the proceedings."
This performance of Ku-Ka-Ilimoku will be accompanied by dancers from the Humboldt State University Dance Program presenting an exciting contemporary dance inspired by the folkloric rhythms and dances of the “Hula Kahiko” tradition. The dance is choreographed by dance professor, Sharon Butcher, and entitled, Standing Here, With Red-Feathered Gods.
Other featured pieces on the program will include the classic work, Toccata for Percussion, by Carlos Chavez and Marimba Spiritual by Minoru Miki.
The first half of the show will conclude with a suite of traditional Mandeng Drumming from West Africa, and a special presentation by the HSU World Percussion Group of authentic Afro-Cuban folkloric music based in the traditions of the Yoruba people of Nigeria.
The second half of the show will feature the festive dance music of the Humboldt State Calypso Band. For 29 years, the Calypso Band has been performing and entertaining local audiences, and has proven to be one of Humboldt County’s favorite and most enduring musical ensembles.
The Calypso Band is comprised of an orchestra of over 40 steelpans (or steeldrums) representing the full symphonic range. This spring, the Humboldt State Calypso Band toured Santa Rosa, Petaluma, Tomales, San Rafael, and Berkeley, California, entertaining hundreds of listeners, and sharing their authentic Caribbean sounds with their enthusiastic audiences throughout Northern California.
For their performance in the Van Duzer Theatre, the Calypso Band will feature several high-energy dance compositions from the Caribbean in their set, including two modern Panorama classics composed by steelband legend, Len “Boogsie” Sharpe, from the island of Trinidad – Misbehave and Woman is Boss.
For 29 years, the Humboldt State Calypso Band has prided itself in maintaining an accurate and authentic connection to the roots of the steel band movement and the innovative musicians of Trinidad, the island on which this unique percussion phenomenon was born. The band remains dedicated to entertaining audiences with spirit, authenticity, and respect.
Friday, May 01, 2015
soloists Andrew Henderson and Craig Hull Symphonic Band Celebrates Cinco de Mayo
HSU Symphonic Band marks Cinco de Mayo with La Fiesta Mexicana and the relentless rhythms of Huapango, plus a World Music medley by North Coast composer Gregg Moore—and more, on Friday May 1 in Fulkerson Recital Hall. La Fiesta Mexicana, subtitled “A Mexican Folksong Symphony” is a three movement work by American band composer H. Owen Reed that tells the story of a festival that includes an Aztec dance and a solemn church service before ending in a carnival celebration complete with a traveling circus, a bullfight and a mariachi band. Huapango by Mexican composer Jose Pablo Moncayo is also based on a festival dance originally from the state of Veracruz. “This is basically a perpetual motion piece with a relentless driving rhythm,” said conductor Paul Cummings. “We feature two of our really advanced brass players on alternating solos—Craig Hull on trombone and Andrew Henderson on trumpet.” Two pieces focus on wind instruments. “These are musical vehicles for our more experienced players to shine,” Cummings said. They are Suite for Jazz Orchestra by Dmitri Shostakovich and Strange Humors by John Mackey, which is a piece for saxophone quartet and the African drum called the djembe. “It has to be one of the oddest combinations of instruments ever,” Cummings said.
photo: Harvard Magazine
Among other selections on the program is a World Music medley by well-known North Coast musical figure Gregg Moore. “Gregg adapts music originally played by bands in the public square, in South America or Spain for example,” Cummings said. “Too much of our modern wind ensemble music loses the authenticity of folk music it is based on. Gregg stays true to the origins of the music, and that comes through in his arrangements.” HSU Symphonic Band performs on Friday May 1 at 8 p.m. in Fulkerson Recital Hall. Tickets from HSU Ticket Office (826-3928) or at the door: $8 general, $5 seniors and children, HSU students with ID admitted free. Produced by HSU Music department.
Media: Times-Standard "Urge," Mad River Union, Humboldt State Now
This piece with jazz elements in first on the program because it’s a short, super high energy piece, in the style of an overture or a fanfare. Dana Wilson is a highly regarded American composer, much in demand, who teaches at Ithaca College in New York. He’s lives in the classical music world but also in the jazz world as a musician himself, and he looks for ways to merge these two areas that we often want to separate. His music has received a lot of acclaim. This piece is loud, fast and fun.
La Fiesta Mexicana by H. Owen Reed
Reed was a fixture at Michigan State University on the composition faculty from 1939-1976. He had a number of students who developed into composers themselves. He died just last year. He was an excellent composer who wrote for all mediums, including symphonic band. This is generally considered to be his greatest band piece.
This is program music—it tells a story. His subtitle suggests that: A Mexican Folksong Symphony. He tells his story using a number of Mexican tunes. In the first movement, bells and fireworks call people to the cathedral square for a religious festival. They arrive to witness a midday parade and a frenzied Aztec dance.
The bells ring again to call everyone into the cathedral for a ceremony. That’s the second movement, very slow, basically a chorale. The third movement is called “Carnival”—it’s the height of the fiesta out in the cathedral square with a traveling circus, a bullfight, a market bazaar, the town band and a mariachi group.
This is a core work in the wind band repertoire, and it’s the longest piece on the program at about 22 minutes.
Huapango by Jose Pablo Moncayo
transposed for band by Leroy Osmon
Huapango is basically a perpetual motion piece—it’s got this driving relentless rhythm that hardly ever stops. There’s variation and melody but mostly it’s characterized by this driving rhythm in 6/8 time.
It’s based on a dance--“Huapango” is a rhythmic Mexican folk dance performed on a wooden platform. It’s also the name of a festival celebrated in the state of Veracruz, where they did this dance.
Moncayo was a 20th century Mexican pianist, percussionist and conductor as well as a composer.
We feature two of our really advanced brass players—Craig Hull has a trombone solo that alternates with trumpet played by Andrew Henderson. They play back and forth, having a conversation between the trumpet and the trombone, with support from the rest of the band.
Caccia and Chorale
by Clifton Williams
This also is part of the core repertoire for wind ensembles. Williams was an American composer active from the 50s into the 70s.
“Caccia” means a chase or a hunt. “Chorale” is a hymn.
It does sound like it’s racing for much of the first section, the “caccia.” Even though caccia is a form of music that goes back to the Middle Ages, he is using it with specific application to the modern world. According to the composer, this section is intended to “reflect the preoccupation of most people in the world with a constant pursuit of materialism.” The chorale section “by contrast is an urgent and insistent plea for greater humanity, a return to religious or ethical concepts.”
It’s interesting that he uses the caccia form to get that across, but you can certainly listen to the music without thinking about materialism. He also writes: “While it remains open to question whether music can convey any message other than a purely musical one, composers often tend to attempt to express philosophical, pictorial or other aspects within a musical framework.”
The chorale is a beautiful slow hymn in which the brass and the woodwinds are often set off against each other.
A Medley by Gregg Moore
photo: The Hum
Gregg Moore is our local World Music guru. I commissioned Greg to do some pieces that could work for our Symphonic Band. We’re using pieces he’d already written but he tweaked them a little and added some instruments to round out the instrumentation so it would work for us.
Modern symphonic band students don’t get to do authentic World Music very much—music that has roots in indigenous music from continents other than North America. Too much of our modern wind ensemble music loses the authenticity of folk music by changing instrumentation, keys and tempos to make it "band friendly"-- more suitable to be played by a concert band in the 21st century.
Gregg’s music often has South American roots, or from Spain and other places. There’s an upbeat flavor of his arrangements that comes from the tradition of the music originally being played outdoors in the public square, and Gregg’s band arrangements connect with the original performance medium. I think Gregg has stayed true to the origins of the music. He’s customized these pieces a bit for our band but I think the authenticity is still there—the respect for the genesis of the music—and it comes through in his arrangements.
Gregg was kind enough to agree to perform some of his music and tweak some of it, so we’re all looking forward to doing a little medley of some of his world band music.
Chamber Winds: Suite for Jazz Orchestra by Dimitri Shostakovich Strange Humors by John Mackey
These pieces are on our program because we have advanced musicians that need outlets, and these are musical vehicles for our more experienced players to shine.
Shostakovich wrote two of these suites—this is the first. I think the second is performed more often. He wrote this as a young man, in 1934 as Stalin was coming to power in Russia. Stalin’s government was looking for music that was lighter than his great symphonies. I think this piece is a compromise to satisfy the government with something light and happy.
Still, even though it’s pretty short and light, it shows his brilliant compositional genius—incredible harmonic modulations that you wouldn’t expect in a waltz, a polka and a foxtrot. Very unusual, creative, modern harmonic devices. So even under duress, Shostakovich and other Russian composers who didn’t want to emigrate found ways to be creative and modern.
John Mackey’s piece is for a saxophone quartet—soprano, alto, tenor, baritone—and djembe, which is an African drum. It has to be one of the oddest combination of instruments ever. So it’s unique, but it works. The djembe sets up a groove for the melodic material by the saxes.
John Mackey is a Julliard-trained composer, not yet 40 but getting a lot of play all over the world. He’s written orchestra and choir music but especially for band.
