School of Music
U N C G
UNCG Symphony Orchestra
Robert Gutter, conductor
Jaemi Loeb, assistant conductor
Violin I
Frederic St. Pierre,
concertmaster
LaTannia Ellerbe,
assistant concertmaster
Kwanghee Park
Michael Cummings
Elizabeth Malcolm
Will Selle
Laura Doyle
Shina Neo
Shelley Blalock
Beth Zimmerman
Amy Blackwood
Violin II
Katie Costello,
principal
Emily Arnold,
assistant principal
Holly Ross
Jared Matthews
Holly Sitton
Andrew Liggett
Justin Ivey
Amy Johnson
Ashley Brown
Nicole Phillips
Greg Peterson
Viola
Eric Koontz,
principal
Noah Hock,
assistant principal
Sara Bursey
Patrick Scully
John Ward
Susannah Plaster
Frances Schaeffer
Joseph Driggars
Chrissy Fuchs
Amber Autry
Caitie Leming
Anne Marie Wittmann
Violoncello
Hilary Vaden,
principal
Brian Hodges,
assistant principal
Joel Wenger
Deborah Shields
Michael Way
Brian Carter
Jon Benson
Paul Stern
Rebecca Wade
Austin Cline
Sarah Dorsey
Double Bass
Rebecca Marland,
principal
Paul Quast,
assistant principal
Patrick Byrd
Di Wang
Andrew Hawks
Emily Manansala
Stephen Jackson
Mike Ditrolio
Flute
Allison Flores, principal
Elizabeth Yackley
Heather Meredith, piccolo
Oboe
Thomas Pappas, principal
Amanda Woolman
Elizabeth Staff
Chet Moon
English Horn
Amanda Woolman
Clarinet
Soo Goh, co-principal
Kevin Erixson, co-principal
Kelly Smith
Bassoon
Becky Hammontree, principal
Carol Lowe
John Baxter
Jhon Jessica Conroy
Contrabassoon
Jhon Jessica Conroy
Horn
Mary Pritchett, principal
Tara Cates
Kelly Dunn
Julie Price
Trumpet
Mark Hibshman, co-principal
Scott Toth, co-principal
Luke Boudreault, co-principal
Trombone
Sean Devlin, principal
Frank Beaty
Chris Cline
Bass Trombone
Chris Cline
Tuba
Matt Higgins, principal
Harp
Bonnie Bach
Percussion
Robert Rocha, principal
Michael Haldeman
Braxton Sherouse
Sara Mecum
Librarians
Jaemi Loeb
Joel Wenger
University Symphony Orchestra
Robert Gutter, conductor
Jaemi Loeb, guest conductor
Brooks Whitehouse, violoncello
Sunday, October 3, 2004
3:30 pm
Aycock Auditorium
Program
Ballet Music from Idomeneo, K. 367 Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Chaconne (1756-1791)
Larghetto
Chaconne
Largo — Allegretto
Jaemi Loeb, conductor
Concerto for Cello and Orchestra in B Minor, Op. 104 Antonín Dvořák
Allegro (1841-1904)
Adagio ma non troppo
Allegro moderato
Brooks Whitehouse, violoncello
Intermission
La Mer Claude Debussy
De l'aube à midi sur la mer (1862-1918)
Jeux de vagues
Dialogue du vent et de la mer
_____
The hall is equipped with a listening assistance system.
Patrons needing such assistance should contact an usher in the lobby.
Patrons are encouraged to take note of the exits located throughout the hall.
In an emergency, please use the nearest exit, which may be behind you
or different from the one through which you entered.
Jaemi Loeb is currently in her second year of a Master of Music degree in orchestral
conducting under the direction of Robert Gutter. Last year, she performed with the UNCG
Symphony and Contemporary Chamber Players as well as serving as principal horn in
Philharmonia of Greensboro. This year she continues to work with the UNCG Symphony
and Contemporary Chamber Players while playing second horn in the Raleigh Symphony.
Jaemi spent two weeks in Romania this summer, at the International Institute for
Conductors under the direction of Maestro Gutter and Maestro Ovidiu Bålan. A native of
North Haven, Connecticut, Jaemi comes to UNCG from Brown University, where she
graduated magna cum laude with honors in Music and a second major in Modern Culture
Media. As an undergraduate, she served as assistant conductor of both the university Wind
Symphony and Symphony Orchestra, conducted several musical theater productions, and
studied horn with David Ohanian. Other conducting studies have included the Brevard
Music Center’s Advanced Conducting Seminar, Conductors Guild Training Workshops, and
the Conductors Institute of South Carolina.
Brooks Whitehouse (BA, Harvard College, MMA and DMA, SUNY Stony Brook) is
UNCG’s Assistant Professor of Cello. He comes to Greensboro from the University of
Florida where he spent a year as Assistant Professor of Cello and Chamber Music. From
1996-2001 he and his wife, violinist Janet Orenstein, were artists in residence at the
University of Virginia in Charlottesville as members of The Guild Trio. In his thirteen years
as cellist of the Guild Trio Mr. Whitehouse has performed and taught chamber music
throughout the US and abroad, holding Artists-in-Residence positions at SUNY Stony
Brook, the Guild Hall in East Hampton, NY, and The Tanglewood Music Center. This
ensemble was a winner of both the "USIA Artistic Ambassador" and "Chamber Music
Yellow Springs" competitions, and with the group Mr. Whitehouse has performed
throughout the United States and Canada, as well as in Norway, Turkey, the former
Yugoslavia, Belgium, Luxembourg, Germany, Portugal, France and Australia.
W. A. Mozart:
Ballet Music from Idomeneo, K. 367
Mozart’s opera Idomeneo premiered in Munich on Jan 29, 1781. As was the custom
throughout the Hapsburg Empire in the eighteenth century, Mozart planned a ballet section
University Symphony Orchestra
Robert Gutter, conductor
Robert Bracey, tenor
Franz Liszt: “Faust” Symphony
Greensboro Premiere
Wednesday, October 20 · 7:30 pm
Aycock Auditorium
Contemporary Chamber Players
Robert Gutter, director
Music of Tann, Harbison, Larsen, and Carpenter
Monday, November 15 · 7:30 pm
Recital Hall, School of Music
performance
forthcomi
while writing the opera. As the opera about the King of Crete and his return from the Trojan
War grew in scope and complexity, it became clear that the ballet would not fit within the
main progress of the drama. Mozart therefore separated the ballet music, a charming
dance suite in its own right, from the body of the work. Some believe that the ballet was
inserted between acts two and three or after the conclusion of the opera, as the coronation
celebrations for King Idomeneo’s son, which would occur just after the conclusion of the
plot. In either case, the ballet music from Idomeneo has become a concert piece of its own
in today’s repertory. The main dance of the suite is labeled “Chaconne,” though it bears
little resemblance to the Baroque form of that name. Its regal, stately theme recurs
throughout the dance suite, always bringing with it an appearance by the entire dance
ensemble. The only surviving choreographic information is indications for solo and
ensemble dances. The longest continuous dance is marked “Pas seul de Mr. Le Grand,”
the opera company’s dance master. Tonight we will omit the short dances at the end of the
suite and perform the two main sections, “Chacconne” and “Pas seul de Mr. Le Grand”
along with the subsections they encompass.
Antonín Dvořák:
Concerto for Cello and Orchestra in B Minor, Op. 104
Near the end of his life, Dvořák was enjoying the fruits of a long and successful composing
career. With the support of Brahms and Liszt, and the early success of his first set of
Symphonic Dances, he found success across Europe and the United States. After a three-year
tenure as director of the National Conservatory in New York, Dvořák returned to his
home near Prague in 1895 with the sketches of this staple of the cello repertoire. As a
young man Dvořák wrote a cello concerto in A major that he never orchestrated,
considering the piece a failure and feeling uncomfortable with the medium. Thirty years
later, after hearing Victor Herbert’s (then principal cellist with the Metropolitan Opera)
Second Cello Concerto, Dvořák reconsidered the challenges presented by the cello and
found inspiration for a cello concerto in his friend Hanus Wihan, the finest cellist in
Bohemia. The resulting concerto premiered on March 19, 1896 with the composer
conducting and the solo part played by Leo Stern (Wihan had an unexpected scheduling
conflict).
Though certainly one of the four most famous cello concertos, Dvořák’s B minor concerto is
something of an anomaly. The score calls for an orchestra slightly smaller than usual for its
time, with only three horns. The piece has only three movements, more reminiscent of 18th
century concerti and sonatas than the standard four movements of 19th century symphonic
works. The opening orchestral exposition is longer and more complex than the 19th century
norm. Perhaps most directly in contradiction to the norms of concerto writing, though, is the
startling fact that there is no cadenza anywhere in the piece. Though there are short
passages of recitative-like freedom for the soloist, Dvořák was adamant that no cadenza be
inserted. Like many of Dvořák’s larger works, his cello concerto bears an important
autobiographical mark. In the second movement, Dvořák quotes an early song of his,
“Leave Me Alone,” Op. 82, No 1 that was a favorite of his lover at the time, Josefine
Kaunitzova. On returning home in 1895, Dvořák learned that Josefine was near death, and
so incorporated her favorite music into this work. This passage, as well as the main theme
of the first movement, is recalled in the last movement before it crescendos to an
exhilarating conclusion.
Claude Debussy:
La Mer
At the turn of the 20th century, Claude Debussy was on the cutting edge of art music.
Though he did not invent impressionist music, he was certainly instrumental in its
codification as a musical language. Inspired by the similarly named movement in painting
of the time, impressionist music is more concerned with musical colors and sound qualities
than with logical harmonic relationships. Debussy very deliberately worked towards
creating a new musical language that could meet the new challenges of 20th century art
music. Though tonal hierarchies still function, he pushes the traditionally central
relationship between tonic and dominant to the background, almost beyond recognition.
Debussy uses a musical pallet of all twelve tones of the chromatic scale to paint vivid,
shimmering images.
Though he spent little actual time in close contact with it, Debussy felt a very strong and
deep connection to the ocean. In 1903, he wrote to a friend, “You may not know that I was
destined for a sailor’s life and it was only by chance that fate led me in another direction.”
For Debussy, ideas and imagination were much more central to thought and artistic
expression than actual experience. At that time, La Mer was in its early stages, the piece
being reported finished in 1905. Like Dvořák’s Cello Concerto, this homage to the ocean
follows the triptych form common to Debussy’s orchestral works. Each movement portrays
a different time of day on the ocean – morning, noon, and night. In the first movement, “De
l'aube à midi sur la mer” ("From Dawn to Noon on the Sea"), one can hear gently
undulating waves as the sun rises on the ocean and the strong, forceful swells that mark
the moving of the tide. The second movement, “Jeux de vagues” ("Play of the Waves"), is
structurally very much like the “dream ballet” section standard in Rodgers and
Hammerstein musicals. It is scherzo-like, as the waves enjoy the afternoon with a
vagueness that creates an aura of unreality or a dream. In the finale, “Dialogue du vent et
de la mer” ("Dialogue of he Wind and the Sea"), the ocean is wild under the cover of
darkness. Important motives from the first two movements return in new forms as the piece
reaches a climax that leaves one’s skin feeling dried from the harsh and salty ocean winds.
_____
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, which has had workshops in Kiev, Ukraine;
Catania, Italy; and most recently in Bacău, 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 (MA) Symphony. In 1986 he was
named "Conductor Emeritus" of that orchestra. As an instrumentalist, Gutter served as
principal trombonist with the National Symphony Orchestra (Washington, DC). He holds
the Bachelor and Master degrees from Yale University.
W. A. Mozart:
Ballet Music from Idomeneo, K. 367
Mozart’s opera Idomeneo premiered in Munich on Jan 29, 1781. As was the custom
throughout the Hapsburg Empire in the eighteenth century, Mozart planned a ballet section
while writing the opera. As the opera about the King of Crete and his return from the Trojan
War grew in scope and complexity, it became clear that the ballet would not fit within the
main progress of the drama. Mozart therefore separated the ballet music, a charming
dance suite in its own right, from the body of the work. Some believe that the ballet was
inserted between acts two and three or after the conclusion of the opera, as the coronation
celebrations for King Idomeneo’s son, which would occur just after the conclusion of the
plot. In either case, the ballet music from Idomeneo has become a concert piece of its own
in today’s repertory. The main dance of the suite is labeled “Chaconne,” though it bears
little resemblance to the Baroque form of that name. Its regal, stately theme recurs
throughout the dance suite, always bringing with it an appearance by the entire dance
ensemble. The only surviving choreographic information is indications for solo and
ensemble dances. The longest continuous dance is marked “Pas seul de Mr. Le Grand,”
the opera company’s dance master. Tonight we will omit the short dances at the end of the
suite and perform the two main sections, “Chacconne” and “Pas seul de Mr. Le Grand”
along with the subsections they encompass.
Antonín Dvořák:
Concerto for Cello and Orchestra in B Minor, Op. 104
Near the end of his life, Dvořák was enjoying the fruits of a long and successful composing
career. With the support of Brahms and Liszt, and the early success of his first set of
Symphonic Dances, he found success across Europe and the United States. After a three-year
tenure as director of the National Conservatory in New York, Dvořák returned to his
home near Prague in 1895 with the sketches of this staple of the cello repertoire. As a
young man Dvořák wrote a cello concerto in A major that he never orchestrated,
considering the piece a failure and feeling uncomfortable with the medium. Thirty years
later, after hearing Victor Herbert’s (then principal cellist with the Metropolitan Opera)
Second Cello Concerto, Dvořák reconsidered the challenges presented by the cello and
found inspiration for a cello concerto in his friend Hanus Wihan, the finest cellist in
Bohemia. The resulting concerto premiered on March 19, 1896 with the composer
conducting and the solo part played by Leo Stern (Wihan had an unexpected scheduling
conflict).
Though certainly one of the four most famous cello concertos, Dvořák’s B minor concerto is
something of an anomaly. The score calls for an orchestra slightly smaller than usual for its
time, with only three horns. The piece has only three movements, more reminiscent of 18th
century concerti and sonatas than the standard four movements of 19th century symphonic
works. The opening orchestral exposition is longer and more complex than the 19th century
norm. Perhaps most directly in contradiction to the norms of concerto writing, though, is the
startling fact that there is no cadenza anywhere in the piece. Though there are short
passages of recitative-like freedom for the soloist, Dvořák was adamant that no cadenza be
inserted. Like many of Dvořák’s larger works, his cello concerto bears an important
autobiographical mark. In the second movement, Dvořák quotes an early song of his,
“Leave Me Alone,” Op. 82, No 1 that was a favorite of his lover at the time, Josefine
Kaunitzova. On returning home in 1895, Dvořák learned that Josefine was near death, and
so incorporated her favorite music into this work. This passage, as well as the main theme
of the first movement, is recalled in the last movement before it crescendos to an
exhilarating conclusion.
Claude Debussy:
La Mer
At the turn of the 20th century, Claude Debussy was on the cutting edge of art music.
Though he did not invent impressionist music, he was certainly instrumental in its
codification as a musical language. Inspired by the similarly named movement in painting
of the time, impressionist music is more concerned with musical colors and sound qualities
than with logical harmonic relationships. Debussy very deliberately worked towards
creating a new musical language that could meet the new challenges of 20th century art
music. Though tonal hierarchies still function, he pushes the traditionally central
relationship between tonic and dominant to the background, almost beyond recognition.
Debussy uses a musical pallet of all twelve tones of the chromatic scale to paint vivid,
shimmering images.
Though he spent little actual time in close contact with it, Debussy felt a very strong and
deep connection to the ocean. In 1903, he wrote to a friend, “You may not know that I was
destined for a sailor’s life and it was only by chance that fate led me in another direction.”
For Debussy, ideas and imagination were much more central to thought and artistic
expression than actual experience. At that time, La Mer was in its early stages, the piece
being reported finished in 1905. Like Dvořák’s Cello Concerto, this homage to the ocean
follows the triptych form common to Debussy’s orchestral works. Each movement portrays
a different time of day on the ocean – morning, noon, and night. In the first movement, “De
l'aube à midi sur la mer” ("From Dawn to Noon on the Sea"), one can hear gently
undulating waves as the sun rises on the ocean and the strong, forceful swells that mark
the moving of the tide. The second movement, “Jeux de vagues” ("Play of the Waves"), is
structurally very much like the “dream ballet” section standard in Rodgers and
Hammerstein musicals. It is scherzo-like, as the waves enjoy the afternoon with a
vagueness that creates an aura of unreality or a dream. In the finale, “Dialogue du vent et
de la mer” ("Dialogue of he Wind and the Sea"), the ocean is wild under the cover of
darkness. Important motives from the first two movements return in new forms as the piece
reaches a climax that leaves one’s skin feeling dried from the harsh and salty ocean winds.
_____
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, which has had workshops in Kiev, Ukraine;
Catania, Italy; and most recently in Bacău, 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 (MA) Symphony. In 1986 he was
named "Conductor Emeritus" of that orchestra. As an instrumentalist, Gutter served as
principal trombonist with the National Symphony Orchestra (Washington, DC). He holds
the Bachelor and Master degrees from Yale University.
