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Mark (Allen McCoy) Your Calendar!
Mountains and Music
May 15, 8 p.m.
Franklin Park Performing Arts Center
Purcellville, Virginia
Special Guest: Miroslav Loncar, Classical Guitar
Education Partner: Newton Marasco Foundation
Webern: Langsamer Satz
Haydn: Symphony No. 45 in F-Sharp Minor, Farewell
Castelnuovo-Tedesco: Concerto No. 1 for Guitar in D Major, Op. 99
Copland: Appalachian Spring Suite,
featuring environmental photographs taken by Loudoun
Valley High School students, in collaboration with the Newton Marasco Foundation.
Tickets: Door/Advance: Adults $18/$15; Seniors $15/$12; Youth 18 and under FREE.
Available now at: www.loudounsymphony.org
Pre-concert Reception
On Saturday May 15, from 6:00 until 7:30 p.m., friends and supporters of the
Loudoun Symphony Orchestra are hosting a relaxing event at Tippitt's Hill in
Round Hill, Virginia--a celebration reception prior to our Season Finale concert.
Tippitt's Hill is an 18th century stone farmhouse, the original homestead
of the Purcell Family, and the site of Loudoun's first commercial orchard. It is very beautiful.
Music will be by the Symphony's harpist, Sylvia McClain, plus there'll be wine,
a distinctive array of delicious Hors d'Oeuvres, and the beauty of a
mid-May evening prior to a wonderful concert. Imagine all of that!
Contributing hosts include Fields of Athenry Farm, Studio-B Graphics, M&M Print
and Design, photographer Larr Kelly, and Virginia Coach Company.
Transportation will be provided from the parking
lot at Franklin Park Performing Arts Center every 15 minutes from 6:00 until
6:45 p.m., returning to Franklin Park every 15 minutes from 7:00 until 7:45 p.m.
Your contribution of at least $100 per person is intended to help your Symphony
ease its financial shortfall. Reservations and additional details may be obtained at
loudounsymphony.org or by calling the symphony office at 703.771.8287.
Space for the reception is limited, so place your order
without delay!
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More Music!
The Loudoun Symphony Youth Orchestra is certain to get an "A" for its concert called Bs. And it's Free.
On May 15 at 4 o'clock, at Stone Bridge High School in Ashburn,
our Youth Orchestra will present a wide selection of music, all but one
from composers whose last name begins with B. Here's the Program...
Beethoven: Egmont Overture and the Fifth Symphony (rock version!)
Brahms: Academic Festival Overture and Hungarian Dance No. 6
Bartok: Romanian Folk Dances
Bizet: Carmen Suite
...plus the McCarty Sonata for Trombone and String Orchestra, the Youth Orchestra's concerto competition winner.
The Youth Orchestra, conducted by Dr. Yeong Su Kim, provides performing
opportunities for students age 10-18 who have at least three years of
experience with a private teacher or in school music programs. The group
is highly respected in the County, and maintains a very enthusiastic spirit
about its music and its performances. You will enjoy the afternoon.
Idea: There'll be plenty of time after this concert to attend the reception,
and still arrive at the Franklin Park Arts Center for the Symphony Orchestra's
performance at 8 o'clock. Make a musical day of it!
Loudoun's Got Talent...2010
Deadline has been extended to April 26!
Time is running out to register for the second annual Loudoun's Got Talent: Youth Edition
competition. Are you ready?
Here is a great opportunity for high school students in the County--performers who
are vocal or instrumental soloists--to earn scholarship money for college, music lessons or other educational costs. Awards
are $1000 for First Place, $500 for Second, and $250 for Third.
All you have to do is register no later than Monday, April 26 at loudounsymphony.org.
There is a $25 registration fee. (This fee may be waived for financial hardship upon written recommendation of music teacher.)
Then, on Saturday May 1, all registrants will audition for a panel of professional
musicians, with the top 10 performers appearing at the Franklin Park Performing
Arts Center in Purcellville on Sunday, May 30th at 2 o'clock. The judges will be joined by the audience to make the final selection of the three winning artists.
Don't miss out on this exceptional chance to perform in an excellent theatre,
coupled with the potential of scholarship money.
Audience note: Mark your calendar for the Sunday, May 30
finalist concert and competition. If last year's Loudoun's Got Talent event is
any guide, you will be rewarded by seeing and hearing superior instrumentalists
and vocalists. You'll also have the unique chance to vote for your favorites!
Very worthwhile and valuable.
Sizzling Summer
Our Summer Chamber Concert is on June 18, 8 p.m. at the Franklin Park Arts
Center in Purcellville. The list of selections will include the Bach Brandenburg Concerto No. 6 as well as works by Gluck, Arthur Foote, Max Bruch and Sebastian Bodinus. Some very interesting pieces on this program. Check our Web site for the final program as the date gets
nearer.
Tickets: Door/Advance: Adult $12/$10,
Senior $10/$8. Those 18 and younger are always Free.
They Sound Good, Can I Do It?
A Petting Zoo report by Don O'Brien
Petting Zoo?
A day on the farm sponsored by the Loudoun Symphony?
Not even close.
Now in its 12th year, the Symphony's Instrument Petting Zoo is the
perfect way to introduce children to the various sections of the orchestra,
and give them the surprising opportunity to "play" professional instruments
themselves. And all of it free.
This particular ...Zoo was held in Leesburg's beautiful Rust Library,
and was sponsored by both the Library Advisory Board and Melodee Music.
Here's the story....
Strings, brass, harps (2 of them), woodwinds and percussion were represented,
and some of our players brought their students to play as well. Each
individually introduced their instrument family, played one or two brief
selections, and answered questions. When all presentations were over, the
youngsters in the audience were invited to try each instrument by themselves.
Nothing new in any of this.
But....
I happened to be watching one particular family, a mom, dad, and their
daughter, who was about 10 or so. The young girl went from percussion
to brass, then to the strings--trying both the violin and the cello
there. She was hardly interested in any of these things, or so it
seemed to me, doing a perfunctory test of the various instruments,
perhaps only to please her parents. Then she came to the harp. She sat
on the cushioned stool, was shown how to do a glissando by a young
student, and, as if in an instantaneous thunder storm, became electrified.
She sought out notes, played familiar melodies based on her search...all
with a smile as wide as it was absolutely genuine. It was sensational to
see her "find" this instrument--and it was all Mom and Dad could do to
finally encourage her to leave the room and head home.
If for no other reason, the Petting Zoo achieved its idealistic
goal by bringing this child and a musical path together in a moment of
pure discovery. I'm certain that this now-enthusiastic young lady will
either begin harp lessons, or take the "lesson" she learned that day and
follow it to another instrument she will discover in time. Indeed, as
with any art form, all it usually takes is a single spark for a person
to begin an avocation that will buoy them all their lives.
I did not speak with anyone in this family--deliberately. I did not want
to break the moment by becoming some sort of official voice looming over
the scene. Sylvia McClain and her student did all that was required: playing
and showing and encouraging and watching. It was grand.
Thanks to all our Petting Zoo volunteers:
Katharina Muellers-Patel and daughter Anika; Anna Baylock: violin
Carla Deniz: viola
Maria Baylock: cello
Michael Baylock: doublebass
Gina Faber: percussion
Craig Marlowe: flute
Peggy Lee and student Ben Yehles: french horn & trumpet
John Woolley: trombone
Sylvia McClain and student Shayna Scott: harp.
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Six Strings, Not Four
Guitar Concerto and Guest Soloist Miroslav Loncar
Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco (1895-1968), as you'll see in our Did You Know?
section in this issue, was a man of Hollywood. But that only started when he was
in his 40s. His earlier reach and talent seemed not to signal his years of music
for the screen: he wrote his first works at the age of nine.
With his mother's encouragement and support always near, Mario played and worked,
on the keys and on paper, developing a unique style. He received a degree in
piano in 1914, then another one in composition in 1918. Professional musicians
discovered the prodigy's works, and introduced them to audiences across Europe.
In 1928, Castelnuovo-Tedesco's opera, La Mandragora (based on a play by none
other than Machiavelli!) premiered; the young composer's first work formed
from the literary efforts of an earlier age. Indeed, works by Virgil, John
Keats, Walt Whitman and Shakespeare all became sources of inspiration for Mario.
Not everything was going well, however.
Castelnuovo-Tedesco felt the strong pressures of Nazi Germany pressing against
him in the late 1930s. Being Jewish, the purges striding across Europe put
him--and his work--at enormous risk. "My music was suddenly banished from the
Italian radio and some performances of my works were cancelled." He had to
leave his homeland.
The composer's Concerto No. 1 for Guitar in D Major, opus 99, dates from 1939,
one of his first works to be published in the United States. It is dedicated
to Andres Segovia. In fact, Segovia, in describing the work's second movement,
said that it was a "tender farewell to the hills of Tuscany...."
The Concerto embodies a combination of styles, ranging from
neo-Classical to Impressionistic, with flourishes of great beauty. Clever,
impassioned and, as described by Chris Morrison in the All Music Guide, "easygoing."
Our soloist this evening, Dr. Miroslav Loncar, teaches all guitar classes
and the Multicultural Performance Group, at Park View High School in Sterling.
Additionally, he directs the Loudoun County Youth Guitar Orchestra and leads
the Aguado Guitar Club. He also serves on the Guitar Foundation of America
Education Committee.
Dr. Loncar has been teaching classical guitar, music history, music theory,
and music appreciation for over fifteen years at all levels, from primary
to university. Ten years ago he began conducting the Karlovac International
Summer Guitar School and the Imotski Summer Guitar School in Croatia, where
young guitarists and world-class teachers meet every summer for classes and
concerts. He has recorded several albums: solo, as part of the Klasinc &
Loncar Duo, with Trio Bolero, and with the calypso group Kaiso.
Perhaps best of all, Dr. Loncar is an active and enthusiastic promoter of
classical guitar, having organized numerous concerts, concert series, and
festivals. So join us on May 15 and hear Dr. Loncar for yourself. His
talent and personable style will add depth and understanding to
Castelnuovo-Tedesco's Concerto No. 1 for Guitar in D Major.
Spring Is Here!
Aaron Copland's Appalachian Spring is a ballet, commissioned in 1944.
Choreography was planned and written by Martha Graham, the world-famous
dancer who created a new "language" of dance by combining ideas of design,
staging, lighting, costumes and every other facet of performance.
The Suite we will perform is the most familiar version of the work. Slightly
shorter than the full ballet, it still presents the full range of gloriously
soft and gentle music Copland composed. Briefly described, the
music tells the story of a young engaged couple's celebration at
the completion of a farmhouse they've built in Pennsylvania. One
emotionally strong feature of the work is a Shaker melody based on
the song "Simple Gifts," which dates from 1875. The opening
four lines of the song seem to set the mood and calming resolution of
Appalachian Spring:
'Tis the gift to be simple, 'tis the gift to be free;
'Tis the gift to come down where we ought to be;
And when we find ourselves in the place just right,
'Twill be in the valley of love and delight.
Copland had earlier written two other sublime works which have a familial
relationship to each other: Rodeo and Billy The Kid. With
Appalachian Spring, he completed what has come to be called his
"Americana" set. But each work stands on its own in both melodic style
and effectiveness, and one need not have any knowledge of the two other
works to appreciate the passion and serenity the composer
wove into ...Spring.
Music presents many rewards to its listeners. Those of Appalachian Spring
include a knowing smile, a
sense of calmness and peace--a renewed sense of the important values
of family life and love.
Note: One year after its initial presentation, Appalachian
Spring won the 1945 Pulitzer Prize for music, and, from the
Music Critics Circle of New York, an award for the outstanding
theatrical work of the season.
Appalachian Spring Slideshow!
During the performance of the Appalachian Spring Suite, we will feature
a truly unique slideshow of environmental photographs taken by Loudoun Valley
High School students. These lovely photographs were created as part of a
contest sponsored by the Newton Marasco Foundation, a nonprofit organization
whose mission is to work collaboratively on issues related to environmental
stewardship. This special multi-media presentation will highlight both the
creativity of our Loudoun youth and the connection of Copland's music to
our beautiful land. The Loudoun Symphony thanks the foundation for their
work with youth to preserve that land and for their financial support of
this concert. Please visit www.NewtonMarascoFoundation.org
for more
information about the foundation and the photography contest.
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Slow, But Sweet
Very odd when you think about it, but Langsamer Satz (or the Slow Movement)
is only that, the slow movement of a string quartet by Anton Webern (1883-1945).
Yes, it's all he wrote for what is usually a 4-movement piece. You might say
it's complete and inspiring in its isolation.
Here's how it came to be:
Anton and his fiance--who would soon become his wife--were on a peaceful
walk in the hill country just outside Vienna on a warm afternoon in June
1905. Apparently, the beauty of the day, and the pleasant company of his
companion, inspired the composer to create what has been called a dramatic
yet calming moment in early 20th century music.
And while it is true that Webern wrote most of his works in the 12-tone
system, still occasionally difficult for modern ears to hear, his "slow
movement" is rich with the distant echoes of Brahms, and the full richness
of the tonality of 19th century greats. Curiously, Langsamer Satz
wasn't discovered for many years after Anton's death.
Don't miss this opportunity to hear a unique composition by a
man known mostly for works far different than this.
Could be we have his fiance to thank for it?
Did You Know?
- Joseph Haydn, born in 1732, wrote 104 symphonies. The Farewell, which
we will perform on May 15, was named that because Haydn's orchestra wanted
a break from the constant work required by the Esterhazy family (in
the Kingdom of Hungary, today's southwest Slovakia). So, as each
performer's final part in the piece ended, he or she put down their
instrument and walked off the stage. History notes that the Esterhazys took the hint.
- Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco? Who's that? Born in Italy, he fled to the
U.S. just before the outbreak of WWII thanks to Arturo Toscanini,
the former music director at La Scala. Mario eventually ended up in
Hollywood where he wrote, or assisted in the writing of music for
200+ films: Earth vs. The Flying Saucers, Spencer Tracy's Dr. Jekyll
and Mr. Hyde, 1948's Superman, and scores more (pun intended). Also,
at Rita Hayworth's request, he wrote music for her 1938 The Loves of Carmen.
His works have influenced John Williams (a pupil of his, and the man who wrote
the score for 1978's Superman!), Nelson Riddle, Henry Mancini, Andre
Previn and many more. Thank you, Mario!
- The modern symphonic harp has seven pedals.
- At the age of 62, Johann Sebastian Bach was losing his vision and opted
to have surgery. The procedure failed, leaving the great composer totally
blind. When he died, 3 years later in 1750, his music was essentially forgotten
for more than eighty years. Alas.
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Previous issues of Loudoun Symphony Notes can be found
at: http://www.loudounsym.org/notes_index.htm.
Have comments or questions? Contact the editors--Don
O'Brien and Vicki Rundquist--at newsletter@loudounsym.org
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