Download IMANI wINDs - Rockport Music

Sunday
13
july
5 PM
imani winds
Valerie Coleman, flute
Toyin Spellman-Diaz, oboe
Mariam Adam, clarinet
Monica Ellis, bassoon
Jeff Scott, French horn
STARTIN SOMETHIN
Jeff Scott (b. 1967)
SUMMER MUSIC FOR WIND QUINTET, OP. 31 (1953-55)
Samuel Barber (1910-1981)
Slow and indolent—Faster—Lively, still faster—With motion,
as before—Joyous and flowing—Tempo I
AFRO-CUBAN CONCERTO (2001)
Valerie Coleman
Afro
Vocalise
Danza
:: intermission ::
RUBISPHERE FOR FLUTE, CLARINET AND BASSOON (2012)
Valerie Coleman
THE RITE OF SPRING (1913)
Igor Stravinsky (1882-1971)/arr. Jonathan Russell
DANCE MEDITERRANEA
Simon Shaheen (b. 1955)/arr. Jeff Scott
33RD SEASON | ROCKPORT MUSIC :: 95
WEEK 5
the program
STARTIN SOMETHIN
Jeff Scott (b. New York, 1967)
Notes
on the
program
by
Sandra Hyslop
4 minutes
The composer Jeff Scott leads multiple professional lives. The Imani Winds horn player
since the ensemble’s founding in 1997, he has also performed on numerous movie soundtracks
and in theater and ballet orchestras. Additionally, he is the composer and arranger of an
extensive body of works in many genres, and for a variety of instruments and singers, as
well as an educator, serving as a member of the Montclair State University music faculty
since 2002. His piece Startin Somethin was commissioned by the Monmouth Winds
(members of the New Jersey Symphony). He writes:
Startin Somethin is a modern take on the genre of ragtime music. With an emphasis
on ragged—the defining characteristic of ragtime music is a specific type of
syncopation in which melodic accents occur between metrical beats. This results
in a melody that seems to be avoiding some metrical beats of the accompaniment
by emphasizing notes that either anticipate or follow the beat. The ultimate (and
intended) effect on the listener is actually to accentuate the beat, thereby inducing
the listener to move to the music. Scott Joplin, the composer/pianist known as the
“King of Ragtime,” called the effect “weird and intoxicating.”
Composer and Imani Winds
horn player Jeff Scott
SUMMER MUSIC FOR WIND QUINTET, OP. 31
Samuel Barber (b. West Chester, Pennsylvania, March 9, 1910;
d. New York City, January 23, 1981)
Composed 1953-55; 13 minutes
Summer Music was written by Samuel Barber on a commission from the Chamber Music
Society of Detroit. Over the two-year period of its composition, Barber was influenced by
significant interactions with the New York Wind Quintet, in particular its esteemed horn player,
John Barrows. Summer Music was first performed in March 1956 at the Detroit Institute of
Arts. It achieved instantaneous and lasting success with audiences and wind ensembles.
On behalf of the Imani Winds, the Canadian cellist and writer Brian Mix has contributed the
following note on Barber’s Summer Music:
Samuel Barber
96 :: NOTES ON THE PROGRAM
Samuel Barber is one of the best known and most performed of American
composers. His popularity rests in part because of his immediate accessibility: Barber
resisted the modernist developments of many of his contemporaries, opting instead
to stay within the boundaries of late Romanticism harmonically, and traditional forms
structurally. However, his essential conservatism should not be taken as a lack of
an original voice. His music is both personally distinctive and idiomatically definitive,
“American” in its simplicity and directness, but never derivative or heavy handed.
Barber’s melodic gifts are well evident in his many songs and in such works as the
Adagio for Strings. He was internationally known before he was 30. Most of Barber’s
works were the results of commissions by ensembles or prominent performers.
As a result Barber was prolific in many genres, but left only a handful of examples
in each. Such is the case in chamber music: one string quartet, one violin sonata,
one cello sonata and one wind quintet. Summer Music is quintessentially Barber in
its lyricism, and in the wide range of emotional material contained within its
single movement.
AFRO-CUBAN CONCERTO
Valerie Coleman (b. Louisville)
Composed 2001; 18 minutes
Valerie Coleman began her musical studies at the age of 11 and by 14 had already composed
three symphonies. She studied at Boston University and the Mannes College of Music in
New York. The resident composer, founder and flutist of the Imani Winds, she has served on
the faculty of The Juilliard School of Music Advancement Program and the Interschool
Orchestras of New York.
Composer and Imani Winds
flute player Valerie Coleman
Valerie Coleman has written about her Afro-Cuban Concerto:
The Afro-Cuban Concerto for Wind Quintet and Orchestra was premiered by the New
Haven Symphony under the direction of Jung-Ho Pak in the 2003-04 season. This is
the work to be heard here in its chamber version for wind quintet alone.
This concerto for winds infuses orchestral music with Afro-Cuban musical idioms,
while reintroducing the concept of wind quintet as solo ensemble to the orchestral
stage. In this three-movement work, the wind quintet mimics Afro-Cuban percussion
instruments and traditional vocal sounds, using “wailing” melodies and rhythms at the
root of Afro-Cuban music.
The quintet-only version was written for Imani Winds out of my desire to expand
the sonorous possibilities of the traditional wind quintet and my belief in the role of
flexibility in performance situations. This version was premiered in November 2001 by
Imani Winds at their Carnegie Hall debut. The full orchestral version has been performed
by both the New Haven Symphony under the baton of Maestro Jung-Ho Pak and the
Interlochen Music Festival Orchestra under the baton of Lawrence Leighton Smith.
RUBISPHERE FOR FLUTE, CLARINET AND BASSOON
Valerie Coleman
Composed 2012; 4 minutes
Inspired by the club and lounge scene of Manhattan, Valerie Coleman composed her
Rubisphere for flute, clarinet and bassoon for a performance at a Manhattan club, as part
of the 2012 Composers Concordance Festival Marathon, “Composers Play Composers.” It
was premiered by the trio of performers for whom she wrote the work—herself and her
Imani Winds colleagues Monica Ellis and Mariam Adam.
Composer Igor Stravinsky
and Ballets Russes principal
male dancer Vaslav Nijinsky,
who choreographed the
original (1913) ballet Rite
of Spring.
THE RITE OF SPRING
Igor Stravinsky (b. Lomonosov, Russia, June 17, 1882; d. New York City, April 6, 1971)/
arr. by Jonathan Russell
Composed 1913/arr. 2010; 21 minutes
A multi-talented musician, Jonathan Russell is a clarinetist, conductor and above all, a
composer. He is currently a doctoral candidate in the composition program at Princeton
33RD SEASON | ROCKPORT MUSIC :: 97
Notes
on the
program
by
University. A dedicated educator, he has served on the music theory faculty at the San
Francisco Conservatory and on the composition faculty at the Conservatory’s adult and
preparatory divisions.
The Imani Winds have provided their thoughts about Jon Russell’s brilliant arrangement of
the Stravinsky ballet:
The Rite of Spring occupies one of the most revered places within the pantheon of
contemporary classical music, since its premiere on May 29, 1913. Originally a ballet,
this tour de force masterpiece has become a staple of the orchestral repertoire. The
first note sets the stage, with a haunting bassoon solo, opening the door to visions
of a pagan ritual in which a young girl dances herself to death.
Sandra Hyslop
The piece is divided into two parts that include intense and famously complex, multimeter rhythms, coupled with completely innovative uses of harmony and orchestration.
Also, Stravinsky is masterful with his use of stark dissonances at one point and the
most serene melodic phrases at another.
The Rite of Spring was tastefully excerpted and arranged by Jonathan Russell, a New
Jersey-based composer and clarinetist. The beauty of this arrangement is that although
it reduces a 100-plus piece orchestra to a wind quintet, it completely captures the
essence of the selected sections, while still fulfilling the meaning of the entire piece.
The writing is already so exceptionally executed that the piece is capable of being
arranged for a small ensemble with careful placement of voices and pairings of
instruments within the quintet, which Mr. Russell achieves. All of the intricate
and beautiful elements that lovers of the piece look for are well within this
arrangement, which constitutes a hardy addition to the wind quintet repertoire.
Composer and arranger
Jonathan Russell
DANCE MEDITERRANEA
Simon Shaheen (b. Tarshiha, Upper Galilee, Israel, 1955)/arr. Jeff Scott
Composed before 2001; 7 minutes
Virtuoso string player and
composer Simon Shaheen
COMING NEXT
MONDAY,
JULY 21, 7 PM
FILM:
A Walk into
the Sea – Danny
Williams and the
Warhol Factory
Simon Shaheen, an internationally renowned master of stringed instruments ranging from
the oud to the violin to the mandolin, is a member of the faculty at the Berklee College of
Music. His official faculty profile reveals his devotion to the world’s music, with no borders:
“What I’m bringing to Berklee is my experience as a Western classical musician, Arab
traditional musician and this eclectic fusion of music from around the world, which I
grew up with. I speak five languages because I grew up with it…so it’s part of me. Berklee
is the place where I can bring all this experience, because the idea is not to create compartments
of music, but to open the walls and let all these experiences seep into each other.” Shaheen’s
Dance Mediterranea was originally a violin solo accompanied by an eclectic mix of Western
and Eastern instruments—strings, winds and percussion. It can be heard on a 2001 CD, as
well as via several online sources, such as YouTube.
Jeff Scott, hornist of the Imani Winds and a prolific composer and arranger, has adapted
Shaheen’s highly improvised Dance Mediterranea for the ensemble. “Dance Mediterranea is
one of Shaheen’s classic compositions. The essence of traditional Middle Eastern sounds,
as they meet with virtuosic compositional technique, is more than apparent in this multidimensional, multi-metered piece. It mixes improvisation with block ensemble writing, and
concludes with a fiery finish. This arrangement stems from the collaboration Imani Winds
has established with the master oud player.”
98 :: NOTES ON THE PROGRAM