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Department of Music & Theatre
ISU Symphony Orchestra
Violin I
Nathanael Hardy**
Maia Hove
Tiffany Lam
Ho-Won Noh
Tzu-Han Hsu
Kelly Olsen
Natalie Gillenwater
Erik Olsen
Kamron Van Hulzen
Andrew Yi
Elden Lai
Jacob Feddersen
Violin II
Abigail Romano*
Claudia Coltrain
Saba Shaarbaf-Toosi
Katie Brems
Daniel Nguyen
Samuel Kline
Lydia Berry
Olivia Braun
Skylah Rachel
Brianna Allen
Caroline Shaw
Ewan Shortess
Kathryn Pusey
Brenda Zavala-Livengood
Mingzhe Liu
William Wood
Viola
Caroline Weeks*
Madison Helton
Rachel Henning
Heather Wilson
Brady Nahkala
Kazuhiro Akamatsu
Jessica Helberg
Alexander Worman
Nathan Van Den Oever
Kevin Angeliu
Cello
Benjamin Gruman*
Rae Stephenson
Shota Hattori
Griffen Clark
Jonathan Meyer
Daniel Harter
Dylan Smith
Justin Sung
Kristine Good
Evann Martin
Rahne McIntire
Bass
Ryan Ceverny*
Tanner Thom
Colleen De Matta
Maxsam Donta
Nicholas Nagawiecki
Austin Yurchik
Evan Culver
Ryan Lee
Mason Mathes
Flute
Emily Passini*
Elaine Kramme
Brianne Anderson
Piccolo
Elaine Kramme
Oboe
Arianna Bohning*
Corrin Upton
Marcy Ritchey
Clarinet
Michael Van Ommeren*
Lauren Adams
Bass Clarinet
Tommy Krohn
Bassoon
Emily Arkenberg*
Isobel Holmes
Horn
Abby Crimmins*
Connor West
Rachel Humeston
John Hoelzer
Trumpet
Damien Emilien*
Lucas Yoakam
Jared Thompson
Trombone
Shelbi Weeks*
Alexander Giokas
Bass Trombone
Joseph Roorda
Tuba
Corey Hatfield
ISU Symphony Orchestra
Jacob Harrison, conductor
Mike Giles, alto saxophone
Harp
Katherine Quandt
Piano/Celeste
Malcolm Kelly
Jacob Metzler
Timpani
Malcolm Kelly
Drum set
Ryan Pearson
Percussion
Ryan Pearson*
Layne Droppers
Lane Hacker
Jarrett DeFields
** Denotes Concert Master
* Denotes Principal
Friday, December 4, 2015
7:30 pm
Martha-Ellen Tye Recital Hall
Program
the album Bird with Strings. Personal favorites have been hand-selected for tonight’s performance. The
popularity of this project resulted in record sales, assorted small tours, and a 16-week stay at the famed
Birdland jazz club in NYC.
Charlie Parker with Strings
Selections to be announced from the stage
Parker’s thorny original compositions and feverish small group interplay, hallmarks of his lexicon, were
tabled here for lush string arrangements and wistful interpretations of love songs from the mid-20th century.
Mike Giles, alto saxophone
intermission
The Firebird: Suite 1919
Introduction
The Firebird and Its Dance
Variation of the Firebird
Rondo of the Princesses
The Infernal Dance of King Katscheï
Lullaby
Finale
Igor Stravinsky
(1882-1971)
Our Soloist
Mike Giles is a vibrant and accessible musician, exceptional in both the classroom and the concert hall. A
commitment to original music and inventive approaches to song forms has made him a recognizable voice
throughout the Midwest. His varied skill set and diverse musical background has given him a unique
perspective on music, which he has successfully paired in areas of both education and performance. He
hates fluorescent lighting. Mike is active as an improviser and composer, successfully managing eclectic
mixes of personalities and instrumentation. He is in high demand as a clinician and guest artist, specializing
in contemporary saxophone repertoire and modern jazz concepts. He is also fighting a losing battle with ear
hair. Mike has appeared as a soloist throughout central Europe and Russia. He was the recipient of a
Kennedy Center collaborative award. His modern jazz trio The 3x5 released two albums to high acclaim and
has been showcased at many reputable concert venues and festivals nationwide. Some describe his sound
as the love child of Bjork and Eric Dolphy. He currently teaches Saxophone and Jazz Studies at Iowa State
University.
Program Notes
Charlie Parker with Strings
A true revolutionist, Charlie “Bird” Parker was born and raised in Kansas City, MO. When he was sixteen,
he finished high school, got married, and finally put his hands on an alto saxophone. He spent the next
several years practicing, according to an interview with Paul Desmond, “11 to 15 hours a day.” Armed with
virtuosic facility and an eagerness to realize the sounds dancing in his head, Parker moved to New York
City at age nineteen. While working alongside such luminaries as Dizzy Gillespie, Thelonious Monk, Miles
Davis, Charles Mingus, and Max Roach, the musical genius of Parker led jazz into a new genre – bebop. An
ornate and sophisticated approach to harmonies and improvisation unlike any other, paired with dazzling
technique and a cloak of mystique, further cemented Parker as a musical magician. The bebop style he
codified and perfected still remains one of the most challenging jazz genres to date. Managing a crippling
drug addiction while continuing to blaze a trail for a new generation of jazz musicians proved to be a tricky
balancing act, but Parker still had other creative aspirations.
He became smitten with classical composers Bela Bartok, Paul Hindemith and Igor Stravinsky,
often seen toting around their scores for his perusal. He even inquired about moving to Europe and
studying composition with Edgar Varese. Promoter Norman Granz knew of this classical crossover desire
and was convinced “of the inventive genius of Parker to adapt himself to any musical surrounding.” Granz
helped facilitate several recording sessions (1949-52) of popular jazz standards, which are now available on
The Firebird: Suite 1919
Igor Stravinsky
At the turn of the 20th century, audiences in Paris were hungry for ballet spectacles depicting strange
folklore and exoticism. Impresario and businessman, Sergey Diaghilev created the Ballets Russes to satisfy
this Parisian appetite for the quasi-Asiatic and exotic. The first great project of the Ballets Russes was The
Firebird, a well-known collection of Russian fairy-tales of great importance to Russian neo-nationalists and
symbolists. Firebird symbolism resembles that of the phoenix, the bird that rose from its ashes and embodies
pure, unattainable beauty.
In the scenario for the ballet, Prince Ivan confronts a wicked sorcerer – Kastcheï the Deathless – in an
attempt to rescue a captive princess. Ivan is victorious thanks to the magical feather the firebird has given
him. Mikhail Fokine choreographed the original production and Alezander Golovin created the sets.
Stravinsky was commissioned to write the music, after multiple (and at the time more famous) Russian
composers turned it down.
The Firebird was an unprecedented work. In a letter to a friend, Diaghilev called the project “the first Russian
ballet, for there is no such thing as yet.” While ballet was an important part of the culture of Tsarist Russia,
actual Russian subjects had never been included as part of the Russian imperial ballet tradition.
Harmonically, Stravinsky divides the Firebird into two worlds– the human and the magical. The human
characters are reflected in diatonic melodies and chords while the magical beings are depicted with a
chromatic style.
The premiere of The Firebird in 1910 made Stravinsky an overnight European celebrity. Previously a
provincial Russian composer living in St. Petersburg, The Firebird’s success suddenly made him the talk of
the town in Paris, where he was considered a composer worthy to stand beside Debussy.
The 1919 suite from The Firebird is the second of the three suites Stravinsky extracted for concert
performance. The first suite, prepared in 1911 uses the same large (“wastefully large” Stravinsky later called
it) orchestra as the complete ballet, including quadruple woodwinds, 3 harps, and an extremely large
percussion section. The second suite, prepared for his friend, the conductor Ernest Ansermet and the newly
founded Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, omits two movements included in the 1911 suite and adds the
Berceuse and Finale (Lullaby and Finale), as well as reducing substantially the size of the orchestra. The third
suite was prepared in 1945 and restored some of the material from the 1911 suite, plus other material form
the original ballet, and is scored for essentially the same size orchestra as the 1919 suite.
If you would like to provide financial support for the ISU Symphony Orchestra,
please send your donation to the ISU Foundation, c/o 2505 University Boulevard, Ames, IA 50010.
Please inform the Foundation that your donation is for the
“ISU Orchestra Fund” #1904122.
Thank You!
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music.iastate.edu/orchestra