Download Ithaca College Chamber Orchestra Jeffery Meyer, conductor Marco Albonetti, saxophone Dane Richeson, percussion

Ithaca College Chamber Orchestra
Jeffery Meyer, conductor
Marco Albonetti, saxophone
Dane Richeson, percussion
Ford Hall
Friday, October 3rd, 2014
8:15 pm
Program
Terra Madre
I. Rajasthan
II. Oharabushi
III. Appalachia
IV. Motet
V. Rainforest
VI. Round Dance
Fred Sturm
1951-2014
Marco Albonetti, saxophone
Dane Richeson, percussion
Intermission
Serenade for Strings in C, Op. 48
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky
1840-1893
I. Pezzo in forma di sonatina: Andante
non troppo — Allegro moderato
II. Valse: Moderato — Tempo di valse
III. Élégie: Larghetto elegiaco
IV. Finale (Tema russo): Andante — Allegro con spirito
Biographies
One of Italy’s leading concert saxophonists, Marco Albonetti is
engaged in performing and teaching around the world. He has
appeared at numerous international venues such as the Wiener Saal
of Salzburg, the Berlin Konzerthaus, the Gewandhaus of Leipzig, the
Wits Great Hall of Johannesburg, the Palau de la Musica Catalana of
Barcelona, the Teatro Espanol of Madrid, the Palau de la Musica of
Valencia. His concert tours have taken place in Italy, France, Finland,
Switzerland, Germany, Belgium, Spain, Cyprus, South Africa, Canada,
China and the United States.
He regularly performs as soloist with Italian and international
orchestras and takes part in many important international music
festivals. He has been awarded first prize at several international
music competitions and has recorded for RAI, SABC, PIK1, CBS, LTV
Lumier, Cypriot Radio and Wisconsin Public Radio.
Marco holds diplomas from the Rossini Conservatory (Pesaro, Italy)
and the Sommerakademie Mozarteum in Saltzburg, Austria, as well as
a Master of Music degree (summa cum laude) from Bowling Green
State University as student of Dr. John Sampen, and Doctor of Musical
Arts (summa cum laude, Dean’s Award of Excellence) at Michigan
State University, where he studied classical saxophone performance
under James Forger and Joseph Lulloff and jazz saxophone
performance with Andrew Speight and Brandford Marsalis.
He is the Artistic Director of the Faenza International Saxophone
Festival, Italy, holds a tenured position as Professor of Saxophone at
the Conservatory of Music “N. Piccinni” in Bari, Italy and was named
external examiner for Doctoral Studies at Sibelius Academy in
Helsinki.
Dane Richeson is Professor of Music at Lawrence University
Conservatory of Music in Appleton, Wisconsin, where he has been
Director of Percussion Studies since 1984. He is recognized as one of
the most versatile performers in the percussive arts. Throughout the
world he has been featured in such diverse roles as solo marimbist,
contemporary chamber music percussionist, world percussion
specialist and jazz drummer. Performances have been with such
diverse artists as Bobby McFerrin, Gordon Stout, Nancy Zeltsman,
Gunther Schuller, Geoffrey Keezer, Joe Lovano, NDR Big Band of
Germany, Roscoe Mitchell, Medeski-Martin-Woods, Kenny Wheeler ,
Danilo Perez, and Lyle Mays. He has performed numerous times with
the chamber ensembles CUBE (Chicago), The Bach Dancing and
Dynamite Society (Madison, WI) and has been a featured marimba
artist/teacher at several of the Zeltsman Marimba Festivals, the Ivana
Bilic Marimba/Percussion Week in Croatia, and the Central
Conservatory Chamber Music Festival in Beijing. Moreover, he has
performed at festivals such as Ravinia, North Sea and Montreux Jazz
Festivals, and Beijing Music Festival. Fred Sturm has served as guest conductor/composer/arranger for
professional jazz ensembles and radio orchestras in Germany, Italy,
Denmark, Sweden, Scotland and Norway; as director of university jazz
ensembles and high school all-state jazz bands throughout the U.S.;
as clinician at national educational conferences and festivals; and as
composer-in-residence for school and university music programs. Migrations: One World, Many Musics, his concert suite inspired by
indigenous music from 21 countries, was premiered by vocalist Bobby
McFerrin and the NDR Big Band in Germany in 2007 and toured
Europe the following summer. Sturm was the 2003 recipient of the
ASCAP/IAJE Commission In Honor of Quincy Jones, a prize granted
annually to one established jazz composer of international
prominence. He has received grants from the National Endowment for
the Arts, Meet the Composer, the National Academy of Recording Arts
and Sciences, the Howard Hanson Institute for American Music, and
the Lila Wallace/Reader’s Digest Fund.
Sturm studied at Lawrence University’s Conservatory of Music, the
University of North Texas (performing in the One O’Clock Lab Band),
the Eastman School of Music (performing in the Eastman Jazz
Ensemble), and was a founding member of the RCA, Warner Brothers,
and Pablo Records jazz nonet Matrix. Sturm was the Director of Jazz and Improvisational Music at the
Lawrence University Conservatory of Music in Appleton, Wisconsin. He
previously served as Professor and Chair of Jazz Studies and
Contemporary Media at the Eastman School of Music in New York
from 1991 to 2002, where he directed the internationally acclaimed
Eastman Jazz Ensemble, conducted the 70-piece Eastman Studio
Orchestra, and coordinated the Eastman jazz composition and
arranging program.
Jeffery Meyer is the Director of Orchestras at Ithaca College
School of Music, as well the Artistic Director of the St. Petersburg
Chamber Philharmonic in Russia. In recent concert seasons, he has
been seen conducting, performing as piano soloist and chamber
musician, as well as conducting from the keyboard in the
United States, Canada, Mexico, Russia, Italy, Spain, Germany, Austria,
Norway and throughout Eastern and Southeastern Asia.
Called “one of the most interesting and creatively
productive conductors working in St. Petersburg” by
Sergei Slonimsky, his work with the St. Petersburg Chamber
Philharmonic has been noted for its breadth and innovation. In 2010,
he led the St. Petersburg Chamber Philharmonic in its United States
debut with three performances at Symphony Space’s “Wall-to-Wall”
Festival in New York City which the New York Times called
“impressive”, “powerful”, “splendid”, and “blazing.” His
programming with the Ithaca College Orchestras has been recognized
with three ASCAP Awards for Adventurous Programming, as well as
the Vytautas Marijosius Memorial Award for Programming. He has
been distinguished in several international competitions and was a
prizewinner in the 2008 International Conducting Competition
“Antonio Pedrotti” and the winner of the 2013 American Prize in
Conducting.
Recent and upcoming activities include a guest residency at Tianjin
Conservatory, concerts with the Thailand Philharmonic Orchestra and
the Philippine Philharmonic Orchestra, masterclasses at the Central
Conservatory in Beijing and the Universität für Musik
und Darstellende Kunst in Vienna, and appearances with Stony Brook
Symphony Orchestra in New York, Alia Musica in Pittsburgh, the
Orquesta Sinfónica de Xalapa in Mexico, the MiNensemblet in Norway,
and the Portland-Columbia Symphony in Oregon.
Meyer holds degrees in piano as well as composition and completed
his Doctorate of Musical Arts in Piano Performance with Gilbert Kalish
at the State University of New York at Stony Brook.
Program Notes
Terra Madre (Mother Earth) is a musical plea for world unity that
celebrates both the diversity and shared influences of indigenous
music from six different countries. Ethnic music, folk songs, and
ancient works dating back as far as the 13th century are joined
together in this contemporary chamber music setting. Rajasthan is
an example of Gypsy “Romani” folk music from Rajasthan, India’s
largest state. Oharabushi is a traditional Japanese meditative folk
song that is drawn from the five pitches of the pentatonic scale that
connect them to many other indigenous musics around the world.
Appalachia (Cluck, Old Hen) is an early 19th century traditional
American bluegrass fiddling and banjo tune from the eastern United
States’ Appalachian Mountain range. Motet is a 13th-century French
work (composer unknown) titled Ne m’oubliez mie, part of a collection
of 336 works currently known as the Montpellier Codex. Rainforest
incorporates a beautiful, ritualized dance melody create by the Mbuti
Pygmy tribe of the Ituri Rainforest in equatorial Africa. Round Dance
is song from western Bulgaria with a meter of 11 beats per measure
typically counted 1-2, 1-2, 1-2-3, 1-2, 1-2, and dancers move in
“quick” and “slow” step patterns of QQSQQ.
“I love this Serenade terribly, and fervently hope that it might soon
see the light of day.” So wrote Tchaikovsky to his publisher in 1880
upon completion of the Serenade, Op. 48, a work that was in his
words “composed from an innate impulse; that is something which
arises from having freedom to think, and is not devoid of true worth.”
According to its uncomplicated elegance and economy of means,
much of the work’s main melodic material is made up of simple scale
steps. The first movement, for instance, essentially begins with an
inspired, marcato (or firmly articulated) C major scale, harmonized
and elaborated. The movement’s main allegro subject contrasts a
flowing, lyrical melody with a playful staccato second subject. A
crescendo carries it to its triumphant conclusion, before a
restatement of its Andante beginning. The second movement, a Valse
, though lyrical and at times playful, could perhaps be seen as a
shade darker than the first movement, a predecessor to the
somewhat veiled third. The intimate Elegy, after its almost dream-like
opening, gives way to a simple, expressive violin melody,
accompanied by arpeggiated pizzicato chords in the rest of the
orchestra. After a dramatic climax, Tchaikovsky settles into one of the
darkest and most mysterious areas of the Serenade, before the
movement sublimates in recollection of its opening bars. The last
movement begins attaca; that is, without a break, creating a sense of
continuity. At the outset of this Finale, we hear one of two Russian
folk songs (previously arranged by Tchaikovsky) in the piece: “On the
Green Meadow.” The second folk song, “Under the Green Apple Tree,”
is the main melodic material of the movement’s central allegro
subject, and Tchaikovsky carries this melody through a relatively
standard treatment: a contrasting second, lyrical theme; a fugue-like
development section; a rousing coda. However, there is a great
surprise: the stirring beginning of the first movement reappears, and
via an accelerando (acceleration), we learn that it and the last
movement’s Russian song are one and the same. The work is unified
and the heart is uplifted as the piece concludes on a strong, resonant
pillar of sound.
Ithaca College Chamber Orchestra
Violin I
Sonsoles Llodra,
concertmaster
Jenna Jordan
Lauretta Werner
Timna Mayer
Colleen Mahoney
Justine Elliot Marcus Hogan
Emily Wilcox
Violin II Brian Schmidt, principal Christopher Sforza Kangzhuo Li Elizabeth Benz Darya Barna Corey Dusel Reuben Foley Tiffany Lu Paul Grobey
Viola Renee Tostengard,
principal Kelly Ralston Daniel Martinez Lindsey Clark Jonathan Fleischman Cello David Fenwick, principal Madeline Docimo Zachary Brown Emily Doveala Julia Rupp Bass Andrew Whitford, principal Kevin Thompson Lindsey Orcutt