2004-04-28 University Symphony Orchestra [recital program]

              UNCG Symphony Orchestra
Violin I
† Frédéric St-Pierre, Trois-Rivières, Québec
‡ Katie Costello, Greensboro, NC
Wayne Reich, Greensboro, NC
Ingrid Hobbs, Greensboro, NC
Kwanghee Park, Hendersonville, NC
Melissa Ellis, Apex, NC
Timothy Kim, High Point, NC
Amy Blackwood, High Point, NC
Shelley Blalock, Rocky Point, NC
Elisabeth Malcolm, Garner, NC
Violin II
* Chris Jusell, Chesapeake, VA
**Emily Arnold, Aberdeen, NC
Holly Sitton, Horse Shoe, NC
Debra Sue Anders, Greensboro, NC
Holley Ross, Charlotte, NC
Ashley Brown, Wilmington, NC
Joshua Barbour, Fayetteville, NC
Laura Doyle, Wilmington, NC
Jesse Eversole, Greensboro, NC
Amber Amlands, Elizabeth City, NC
Viola
*Alvoy Bryan, Jr., Greensboro, NC
** Noah Hock, Eugene, OR
Katherine Hayden, Raleigh, NC
John Ward, Greensboro, NC
Sara Bursey, Greensboro, NC
Patrick Scully, Pinehurst, NC
Joseph Driggars, Greensboro, NC
Amber Autry, Greensboro, NC
Anne Marie Wittman, Oak Ridge, NC
Caitie Leming, Raleigh, NC
Jaime DeLong, Clemmons, NC
Susannah Plaster, Greensboro, NC
Violoncello
*Gina Pezzoli, Charlottesville, VA
**Deborah Sheilds, Greensboro, NC
Meaghan Skogen, Whitsett, NC
Joel Wenger, Raleigh, NC
Erin Klimstra, Greensboro, NC
Rebecca Wade, Greensboro, NC
Paul Stern, Tuckasegee, NC
Jon Benson, Winston-Salem, NC
Sarah Dorsey, Greensboro, NC
Double Bass
*Rebecca Marland, Greensboro, NC
**Suzanne Luberecki, Greensboro, NC
Andrew Hawks, Greensboro, NC
Paul Quast, Jacksonville, NC
Patrick Byrd, Greensboro, NC
Di Wang, Greensboro, NC
Emily Manansala, Greensboro, NC
Benjamin Wolf, Greensboro, NC
Brent Rawls, Hickory, NC
Flute
*Laura Meyers, East Aurora, NY
*Elizabeth Yackley, Frederick, MD
Piccolo
*Emily Orr, Greensboro, NC
Oboe
*Connie Ignatiou, Greensboro, NC
*Matt Ward, Greensboro, NC
*Amanda Woolman, Greensboro, NC
B Clarinet and Bass Clarinet
*Nathan Olawsky, Greensboro, NC
*Kenny Tysor, Greensboro, NC
Shawn Copeland, Greensboro, NC
Bassoon and Contrabassoon
*Molly Roberts, Greensboro, NC
Elaine Peterson, Greensboro, NC
Jhon Jessica Conroy, Greensboro, NC
Horn
*Mary Pritchett, Vilas, NC
*Tara Cates, Greensboro, NC
Kelly Dunn, Greensboro, NC
Julie Price, Greensboro, NC
Trumpet
*Scott Toth, Greensboro, NC
*Mark Hibshman, Greensboro, NC
Zac Lee, Greensboro, NC
Trombone
*Sean Devlin, Raleigh, NC
Glenn McIntyre, Greensboro, NC
Bass Trombone
Chris Cline, Marion, NC
Tuba
*Sam Nettleton, Lawrenceville, GA
Percussion
*Robert Rocha, Greensboro, NC
Julia Thompson, Rutherfordton, NC
Mary Schmitz, Swansboro, NC
David Fox, Weaverville, NC
† denotes Concertmaster
‡ denotes Assistant Concertmaster
* denotes Principal or Co-Principal
** denotes Assistant Principal
North American Saxophone Alliance
2004 Biennial Conference
University Symphony Orchestra
Robert Gutter, conductor
with guest soloists
Thomas Walsh, alto saxophone
Otis Murphy, alto saxophone
Frederick L. Hemke, alto saxophone
Frederic J. B. Hemke, alto saxophone
Wednesday, April 28, 2004
8:00 pm
Aycock Auditorium
b
Program
Lieutenant Kijé Suite, Op. 60 Sergei Prokofiev
The Birth of Kijé (1891-1953)
Romance
Kijé's Wedding
Troïka
The Burial of Kijé
Concerto for Alto Saxophone and Orchestra David N. Baker
World Premiere (b. 1931)
Movement 1
Movement 2
Movement 3
Thomas Walsh, alto saxophone
Intermission
Concerto for Alto Saxophone and Chamber Orchestra, Op. 41 Robert Muczynski
Allegro energico (b. 1929)
Andante maestoso
Andante espressivo — Allegro giocoso
Otis Murphy, alto saxophone
Duo Concertante for Two Alto Saxophones and Orchestra (2002) Mark Engebretson
(b. 1964)
Frederick L. Hemke, alto saxophone
Frederic J.B. Hemke, alto saxophone
_____
The hall is equipped with a listening assistance system.
Patrons needing such assistance should please see one of the ushers in the lobby.
Patrons are encouraged to take note of the exits located on all levels of
the auditorium. In an emergency, please use the nearest exit, which may
be behind you or different from the one through which you entered.
Indiana), ISCM Festivals (Tirana, Albania and Baku, Azerbaijan), World Saxophone Congresses
(Pesaro, Italy and Montréal) and Stockholm Radio. He has received numerous commissions
from the Austrian Ministry of Culture as well as from STIM (Sweden) and the American
Composers Forum Composers Commissioning Program.
Dr. Engebretson’s teachers in France were Jean-Marie Londeix (saxophone) and Michel Fuste-
Lambezat (composition). At Northwestern University he studied composition with M. William
Karlins, Pauline Oliveros, Marta Ptaszynska, Michael Pisaro, Stephen Syverud and Jay Alan Yim
and saxophone with Frederick Hemke.
An internationally recognized saxophonist, Frederick L. Hemke has appeared as a recitalist and
soloist with symphony orchestras and wind ensembles in the United States and around the
world. He has presented master classes and lectures throughout the United States, Canada,
Europe, the Scandinavian countries and the Far East. Hemke has been a distinguished visiting
professor at the Conservatoire National de Musique, Paris, the Sweelinck Conservatory of Music,
Amsterdam, and the Basel Conservatory of Music (Basel, Switzerland). He has been an artist-in-residence
at Musik Hogre Skola (Arvika, Sweden), and was a distinguished lecturer at the
second Bienniale Internationale d’Organologie (Hyeres, France) and has been a visiting
professor at numerous universities in the United States. Hemke is a consultant to the La Voz
Corporation (Sun Valley, California) which manufactures his signature saxophone reed, the
Frederick Hemke Premium Reed, the Selmer Company (Elkhart, Indiana) and serves as an
editor for the Southern Music Company (San Antonio, Texas). Hemke has released numerous
solo albums and has appeared as a soloist on other recordings. He has also appeared as a
saxophonist on six recordings with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. Hemke received a
Bachelor of Science degree in music education from the University of Wisconsin at Milwaukee in
1958. He was the first American to receive the Premier Prix du Saxophone from the
Conservatoire National de Musique, Paris, in 1956. He received a master’s degree in music
education from the Eastman School of Music, Rochester, New York, in 1962 and the Doctor of
Musical Arts degree from the University of Wisconsin at Madison in 1975. Hemke has been
professor of saxophone at Northwestern University since 1963 where he also serves as the
School of Music’s Senior Associate Dean for Academic Affairs.
Prior to his appointment at Northern State University (Aberdeen, South Dakota), Frederic J. B.
Hemke was the Director of Jazz Performance Studies and saxophone instructor at the University
of Missouri-Columbia for ten years. He received his bachelor and master of music degrees from
Northwestern University. He has performed as a guest artist in many international venues.
Recently, he was featured with the Amazonia Jazz Ensemble at The International Festival of
Music of Pará in Belém, Brazil. He premiered new music commissioned for him in Poland with
the Wrocław Philharmonic Orchestra and was a guest artist at the Athens International Jazz
Festival with the Athens Big Band. He has taught as a visiting scholar in jazz at the Franz Liszt
College of Music in Budapest, Hungary and soloed at a jazz festival in that city. Mr. Hemke is a
member of the Music Educators National Conference, the International Association of Jazz
Educators, and the National Honorary Music Society Pi Kappa Lambda.
_____
Robert Gutter is currently Director of Orchestral Activities at the University of North Carolina at
Greensboro and also serves as Music Director of the Philharmonia of Greensboro. In 1996 he
received an appointment as Principal Guest Conductor of the National Symphony Orchestra of
the Ukraine in Kiev. He is founder and artistic director for the International Institute for
Conductors in Kiev and Bacau, Romania. In his 35 years as a professional conductor he has
devoted himself to both professional and non-professional orchestras in over twenty five
countries and in the major cities of New York, Washington D.C., Paris, London, Vienna, Milan,
Florence, Stuttgart, and St. Petersburg. In addition to his symphonic engagements, he has
appeared with opera companies both in the United States and in Europe. Prior to accepting his
orchestral posts in North Carolina in 1988, he served as Music Director and Conductor of the
Springfield, Massachusetts Symphony. In 1986 he was named "Conductor Emeritus" of that
orchestra. As an instrumentalist, Gutter served as principal trombonist with the National
Symphony Orchestra. He holds the Bachelor and Master of Music degrees from Yale University.
Symphony Young Artist Competition, and the J. William Fulbright Grant that allowed
saxophone study in France. Otis Murphy is an active saxophone soloist and clinician who
is in great demand throughout the world. In addition to his frequent solo appearances
throughout the United States, he has also performed and given saxophone classes in
France, Switzerland, Germany, the United Kingdom, Canada, Japan, Belgium, and Italy.
Murphy has appeared at some of the most prestigious saxophone events in the world,
performing as a soloist at the 12th and 13th World Saxophone Congresses in Montréal,
Québec, and Minneapolis; a guest soloist with the U.S. Navy Band at the 26th Navy Band
International Saxophone Symposium in Washington, D.C.; an invited soloist at the 7th
British Saxophone Congress in Wales and at the 2003 New England Saxophone
Symposium; and as a professor at the 2003 Faenza International Saxophone Chamber
Music Festival of Italy. Murphy makes frequent appearances with the Indianapolis
Symphony Orchestra and performs actively with wind ensembles and orchestras
throughout the world. He will make his solo debut with the Indianapolis Symphony
Orchestra during the 2004-2005 season, performing Darius Milhaud’s Scaramouche for
Alto Saxophone and Orchestra. In addition, Murphy will have a concert tour in Japan and
Taiwan this summer. Otis has been the featured artist in numerous publications that
include Saxophone Journal, Yamaha’s Backstage Pass , the United Kingdom’s Clarinet and
Saxophone magazine, Japan’s Pipers magazine for wind players, and on the front cover of
The Sax, Japan’s leading saxophone magazine. Memories of Dinant, Murphy’s debut
compact disc recording with his wife, Haruko, on piano, has received critical acclaim and
has sold out. He will record his second solo compact disc early in 2004.
Mark Engebretson:
Duo Concertante (2002) for Two Alto Saxophones and Orchestra
Duo Concertante was written for Frederick L. Hemke and Frederic J.B. Hemke. The father
and son duo premiered the work in the spring of 2003 with the Wrocław Philharmonic
Orchestra, under the baton of Mariusz Smolij. The piece is scored for two solo alto
saxophones and a small orchestra. The Duo is a one-movement work that pits a soaring
lyrical theme performed by one soloist against a driving rhythmic theme played by the
other. The two soloists are then matched against the orchestra. As the music progresses,
elements of one theme can be heard to invade the other: the fun is in listening to see which
idea (if any!) ultimately emerges as the “winner.” The listener will note a limited number of
“special effects” are employed in the saxophone parts, most notably tone color changes
and quarter-tones (those beautiful, “between the notes” pitches). The abstract nature of
the title reflects some of the ideas I was thinking about during composition of the piece,
especially with respect to the rather classically oriented structure of the piece. The high-octane
energy and over the top expressivity should, however, strike the listener as
altogether contemporary.
Mark Engebretson attended the University of Minnesota, graduating summa cum laude in
1986. He pursued composition and saxophone studies in Bordeaux, France on a Fulbright
Fellowship and then pursued Masters studies at Northwestern University. He
subsequently lived as a freelance musician in Stockholm, Sweden and spent three years
living in Vienna, Austria, where he performed with the Vienna Saxophone Quartet and
received commissions from the Austrian Ministry of Culture. Returning to Northwestern in
1995, Engebretson received the Doctor of Music degree in 2000. He has taught at the
Eastman School of Music, the University of Florida and at SUNY Fredonia. He joined the
faculty of the University of North Carolina at Greensboro in the fall of 2003 as Assistant
Professor of Composition.
Dr. Engebretson’s works have been performed in concerts, festivals and venues around
the world, including Wien Modern (Vienna), Gaida Festival (Vilnius, Lithuania), Hörgänge
Festival (Vienna), Filharmonia Hall (Bialystock, Poland), Ny Musikk (Bergen, Norway),
Théâtre la Chapelle, (Montréal), Indiana State University New Music Festival (Terre Haute,
Sergei Prokofiev:
Lieutenant Kijé Suite, Op. 60
In 1933, Prokofiev returned to Russia after a self-imposed 10-year exile in Paris. His first
composition upon returning, and his first composition for film, was a score for the
Alexander Feintzimmer film, Poruchik Kizhé (Lieutenant Kijé). With the success of the 1934
film (released as The Czar Wants to Sleep in the United States), Prokofiev produced a
suite from the film music that same year. At a time when Prokofiev worried about slipping
into academicism, the satirical nature of the film greatly appealed to him and to his
naturally sharp sense of humor. The film, based on a book of the same title by Yury
Tynianov, tells a story of a Czar (the book alludes to Czar Paul) who mistakenly hears a
battle report in such a way as to believe that certain deeds of daring are attributed to a
Lieutenant Kijé, whose unusual name catches the Czar’s attention. Though there is no
such soldier, the courtiers dare not contradict their ruler. Thus, Lieutenant Kijé takes on an
existence on paper, in the battle reports given to the Czar. When the Czar is so intrigued
by the fictional young man that he requests his presence, the courtiers must kill their
character to avoid discovery. The film focuses mostly on the life that the courtiers create for
Kijé.
Like his suite from Alexander Nevsky, Prokofiev substantially re-wrote the film score for
Lieutenant Kijé so that the suite could stand on its own, without filmic images. Important
events of the story are represented in the music, as the most striking themes in the film
score are preserved. Each of the five sections of the suite musically represents an
important event in the fictitious Kijé’s life:
1. The Birth of Kijé: Kijé is called into existence by a distant cornet call. Both the satiric
and military elements are evoked by a march-like movement with military band style
scoring and important flourishes for drum and piccolo.
2. Romance: Kijé falls in love in tender, lyrical D minor.
3. Kije’s Wedding: The natural outgrowth of the second section is, of course, a wedding.
The represented celebration is both sentimental and boisterous, with enough drinking
songs for all of the couple’s relatives and friends.
4. Troika: This wide-spread folk dance, inspired by a sleigh of the same name, was a
favorite of soldiers in taverns at the end of the Czarist era. Kijé spends his free time in
patriotic reveling.
5. The Burial of Kije: Kijé’s fictional life must end. He is buried a hero, music wistfully
remembering his life, and offering a touching farewell.
_____
David N. Baker:
Concerto for Alto Saxophone and Orchestra
program note by the composer
Concerto for Alto Saxophone and Orchestra was written in 1989. It was revised in 2004 in
preparation for its premiere performance, which will feature the brilliant saxophonist
Thomas Walsh, my dear friend and colleague to whom this composition is dedicated.
Concerto for Alto Saxophone and Orchestra is one of only a handful of my compositions
which calls for a soloist who is equally skilled in handling both the classical and jazz
languages. In most of my "Thirdstream" works, the "improvised" sections are written out
so that that I can be assured of a realization which fits my artistic vision for the piece. This
work, however, is designed to provide a point of departure for the exceptional
improvisational skills and imagination of Thomas Walsh, whose formidable talents as an
interpreter of contemporary classical music and as one of today's brightest and most
imaginative jazz soloists make him the ideal artist to create the concerto's definitive first
performance.
David Baker is Distinguished Professor of Music and Chairman of the Jazz Department at
the Indiana University School of Music in Bloomington, Indiana. He received his bachelor's
and master's degrees from Indiana University and studied with a wide range of master
teachers, performers and composers including J.J. Johnson, Janos Starker, and George
Russell. He is an award-winning performer/composer/educator who is a Pulitzer Prize and
Grammy Award nominee and the recipient of many honors, including Down Beat
magazine’s New Star, Lifetime Achievement, and Jazz Education Hall of Fame awards; the
National Association of Jazz Educators Hall of Fame Award; the Indiana Historical
Society’s Living Legend Award; the Smithsonian Institution's James Smithson Medal; and
the National Endowment for the Arts American Jazz Masters Award.
He is the conductor and artistic director of the Smithsonian Jazz Masterworks Orchestra
and has performed and taught all over the world. His compositions total more than 2,000
in number, including jazz, symphonic, and chamber works. His service in music
organizations includes the National Council on the Arts, the board of the American
Symphony Orchestra League, the Jazz Advisory Panel to the Kennedy Center, and the
Jazz/Folk/Ethnic Panel of the National Endowment for the Arts. He is the President of the
International Association of Jazz Educators, past president of the National Jazz Service
Organization, and currently serves as senior consultant for music programs for the
Smithsonian Institution. He has more than 65 recordings, 70 books, and 400 articles to his
credit.
Thomas Walsh is Associate Professor of Saxophone and Jazz Studies at Indiana
University in Bloomington and is a Yamaha Performing Artist. An active performer of jazz
and classical music, he performs regularly with the Louisville Orchestra and he has
appeared as a solo recitalist, in chamber groups, jazz small groups, big bands, and
Broadway shows. He has presented concerts and workshops across the United States, as
well as in Germany, Austria, Italy, Croatia, Slovenia, Azerbaijan, and Costa Rica. He
performs regularly at conferences of the North American Saxophone Alliance and
performed at the World Saxophone Congress in Montreal (2000) and Minneapolis (2003).
In addition, Walsh has published articles in Jazz Research 1998, Saxophone Symposium,
and NASA Update. His doctoral document is entitled "A Performer's Guide to the
Saxophone Music of Bernhard Heiden." In 2002, Walsh released his first jazz CD, New
Life, on the RIAX label. His first classical Saxophone disc, Shaking the Pumpkin, was
released in 1998 on RIAX. About Shaking the Pumpkin, Saxophone Journal writes, "Do
not let this CD slide through your hands. . . . Thomas Walsh is an exceptional performer
and an outstanding saxophonist. . . . It makes no difference which saxophone is in his
hands, they are all equal clay to his touch." He has also recorded with the Buselli/Wallarab
Jazz Orchestra, the Dominic Spera Big Band, the Eugene Rousseau Big Band, and jazz
vocalists Wanda Stafford and Janiece Jaffe. Walsh is on the faculty of the Jamey
Aebersold Summer Jazz Workshops and the jazz faculty of the Bands of America Summer
Band Symposium. He has also taught at the University of Cincinnati College Conservatory
of Music, Purdue University, and Millikin University. Walsh holds Doctor of Music and
Master of Music degrees in Saxophone Performance and a Bachelor of Music in Jazz
Studies from Indiana University where he studied with distinguished classical saxophonist
Eugene Rousseau and renowned jazz educator David Baker.
Robert Muczynski:
Concerto for Alto Saxophone and Chamber Orchestra
Robert Muczynski has been described by Fanfare as "one of our country’s best
composers." Indeed, his works have travelled the globe with performances in the major
cities of Europe, Australia, and the Orient. His orchestral and chamber music has been
featured at Lincoln Center, The Kennedy Center, Orchestra Hall in Chicago, Wigmore Hall
in London, and many other significant venues.
Muczynski studied composition with Alexander Tcherepnin at DePaul University, Chicago
during the late 1940’s. His principal piano teacher during his undergraduate and graduate
years at DePaul was Walter Knupfer. At age 29 Muczynski made his New York debut at
Carnegie Recital Hall, performing a program of his own compositions for piano. At this time
he was head of the piano department at Loras College in Iowa.
Meanwhile, Muczynski’s compositions were beginning to attract an international following.
His Sonata for Flute and Piano received the Concours Internationale Prize in Nice, France,
in 1961 and is now unanimously regarded by audiences, critics, and performers as an
important addition to the flute repertoire.
Considered one of America’s most distinguished contemporary composers, Muczynski
retired as Professor Emeritus from the University of Arizona, Tucson, in 1988 after serving
as head of the composition department and composer-in-residence for 23 years. During
these years he was the recipient of many honors, including a Pulitzer Prize nomination for
the Concerto for Alto Saxophone and Orchestra, Op. 41. Other awards include two Ford
Foundation fellowships and more than thirty ASCAP creative merit awards. His works for
orchestra, chamber ensembles, solo instruments and chorus are now familiar throughout
the world. Muczynski was also honored when his Second Piano Sonata was awarded first
prize at the Fifth International Piano Competition in Sydney Australia, in 1992.
The composer describes the Concerto for Alto Saxophone this way:
“There is a great deal of intricate rhythmic interplay between soloist and orchestra in the
first movement, contrasted by a central section of brooding lyricism. A return to the
bustling first tempo carries the movement to an impetuous close. One might describe the
movement that follows as a long, sustained song, affording the solo instrument the
opportunity of projecting both tender and impassioned statements. Next, the orchestra
presents a slow, hymn-like introduction leading to an expressive cadenza for the soloist.
Shortly, this music reaches a point of repose followed by an abrupt change of mood and
meter, and the Final’s impudent, hard driving subject is underway. Later, it is interrupted
by a slow, sustained interlude wherein the soloist and orchestra participate in an
antiphonal, moody kind of music. With the return of the allegro tempo, the concerto gains
in intensity, arriving at a pulsating Coda and sweeping finish.”
Born in 1972, Otis Murphy joined the faculty of the Indiana University School of Music in
2001 at the age of 28, becoming one of the youngest faculty members in the history of the
IU School of Music. His primary teachers include Jean-Yves Fourmeau, Eugene
Rousseau, and Kenneth Fischer. Murphy holds the Prix de Perfectionnement (by a
unanimous decision of the jury) from the Conservatoire National Régional de Musique,
Cergy-Pontoise, France; the Master of Music degree from Indiana University, graduating
with the Performer’s Certificate, the highest honor given to a performer at this institution;
and the Bachelor of Music Education degree, graduating magna cum laude, from the
University of Georgia. Murphy has won numerous awards and prizes that include 2nd
Prize in the Adolphe Sax International Saxophone Competition (1998) in Belgium, 3rd Prize
in the Jean-Marie Londeix International Saxophone Competition (1996) in France, 1st Prize
in the Heida Hermanns Young Artist Competition, 2nd Prize in the Saint Louis