School of Music
U N C G
UNCG Symphony Orchestra
Robert Gutter, conductor
Jaemi Loeb, assistant conductor
Violin I
Frédéric 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
Grace Lin,
assistant principal
Brian Hodges
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
Elizabeth Staff
Chet Moon
Amanda Woolman, English horn
Clarinet
Soo Goh, co-principal
Kelly Smith
Kevin Erixson, bass clarinet
Bassoon
Becky Hammontree, principal
Carol Lowe
John Baxter, contrabassoon
Alto Saxophone
Andrew Hayes
Horn
Mary Pritchett, principal
Tara Cates
Kelly Dunn
Julie Price
Trumpet
Mark Hibshman, principal
Scott Toth
Luke Boudreault
Trombone
Sean Devlin, principal
Frank Beaty
Bass Trombone
Chris Cline
Tuba
Matt Higgins, principal
Harp
Bonnie Bach
Piano
Brett Hodgdon
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
Gregory Carroll, guest conductor
Dennis AsKew, tuba
Monday, December 6, 2004
7:30 pm
Aycock Auditorium
Program
Overture to The Flying Dutchman Richard Wagner
(1813-1883)
Jaemi Loeb, conductor
Studies in American Folk Idiom (2004) Gregory Carroll
Moderate, bucolic (b. 1949)
Slow, sadly
Fast; bright and playful
Dennis AsKew, tuba
Gregory Carroll, conductor
Intermission
Symphonic Dances, Op. 45 Sergei Rachmaninoff
Non allegro (1873-1943)
Andante con moto (Tempo di valse)
Lento assai — Allegro vivace
Robert Gutter, Conductor
Ms. Loeb’s appearance is in partial fulfillment of the degree requirements for the
Master of Music in Conducting.
_____
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.
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.
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.
Gregory Carroll holds a BA in music from St. John’s University (MN), and earned the MM
and PhD in Composition/Theory from the University of Iowa, where he studied under
Donald Jenni, William Hibbard and Richard Hervig. Carroll has also taught at Indiana State
University, the College of St. Teresa, and the University of Iowa. His compositions have
been performed in Canada, Europe, Australia and the United States. He has served as
finalist judge for numerous state and national composition contests and is frequently sought
after nationally as a guest lecturer and clinician. He is on the Board of Advisors to the
Monroe Institute, a professional organization that explores the effects of sound on the
brain.
Dennis W. AsKew is Associate Professor of Tuba and Euphonium and Music Education.
Dr. AsKew received degrees from the University of Michigan, Penn State University and the
University of Georgia. He has served as Assistant Dean and Director of Undergraduate
Studies for the UNCG School of Music. Additionally, he currently serves as President-
Elect/Vice President for the International Tuba Euphonium Association and served as host
of the 2002 International Tuba/Euphonium Conference. In January 2004, he began a four-year
position as a national Associate Regent for Pi Kappa Lambda, the Music Honor
Society. He is active as a performer, having given solo recitals throughout the United
States, Canada, Italy, Finland, Hungary, Australia and the Netherlands, as well as
numerous concerts as a member of the Market Street Brass Quintet. Dr. AsKew can be
heard on Market Street Brass’ two recordings, Christmas and Jive for Five, and his solo
CD, Carolina Morning.
Richard Wagner:
Overture to The Flying Dutchman
The seventeenth-century ghost tale of the Flying Dutchman, drawn from a legend more
ancient than can be accurately determined, still finds its way into popular culture today.
From Disney’s Pirates of the Caribbean to a cameo on SpongeBob SquarePants, the icon
of the ship’s captain condemned to roam the seas after death has remained long after
ocean travel and commerce have faded from our lives. In the nineteenth century, however,
waterways were the primary mode of long-distance commerce and travel. Many legends of
the sea were common sources of inspiration for theater, literature, and song. Germanic
mythology has an especially long history of such tales and several different burial traditions
for sailors, not unlike Viking burial rites. Richard Wagner, in re-inventing opera as an art
form, relied heavily on Germanic legend and epic to give his operas an abstract, historical
grandeur beyond opulence of staging and costume. That the legend of the Flying
Dutchman, the Dutch merchant ship captain who posthumously roamed the seas having
vowed to round the Cape of Good Hope if he had to sail until doomsday, would capture his
artistic is therefore not surprising.
From the traditional ghost story, Wagner crafted an epic surrounding a sighting of the
Dutchman and his quest for a faithful love that would end his wanderings. Though he finds
true love, the beautiful young woman’s jilted ex-lover convinces the Dutchman that the
woman has been unfaithful, sending the Dutchman back to his unhappy roaming. As the
Dutchman boards his ship, Senta (the beautiful young woman) throws herself into the sea
to prove her fidelity and grant the Dutchman salvation.
The Flying Dutchman premiered in 1843 and became Wagner’s first real success, having
been his first decisive step in the new directions of opera as musical drama and total
artwork for which Wagner is most known today. Though the opera is no longer staged as
frequently as Wagner’s other epics, the overture maintains an important place in the
symphonic repertoire. As is typical of opera overtures, The Flying Dutchman overture
summarizes some of the most important themes of the opera: the Dutchman’s theme,
Senta’s theme, the calls of the sailors to shore, and dance theme of the Steer-man (the
Dutchman’s assistant). With very visually suggestive textures and long, lyrical themes, The
Flying Dutchman overture bears the unmistakable stamp of the mature style of its creator.
— —
Gregory Carroll:
Studies in American Folk Idiom
This work originated as a piece for cello and piano in response to a commission by the NC
Music Teachers Association. I intentionally chose a harmonic/melodic style that most North
Carolinians could appreciate, and the idea for such a work came from Vaughan Williams’s
Six Studies in English Folk Style for cello and piano (1926).
In his search for fresh music for his instrument, Dr. Dennis AsKew asked to look at the
score. After seeing the tempo/style indication (“bucolic”) for the first movement, he
remarked, “This piece has ‘tuba’ written all over it!” An arrangement for tuba and piano
followed. Subsequently, Dr. AsKew performed it over the years in various concerts,
including performances at International Tuba/Euphonium Association Conventions
worldwide.
In July 2003, the Anchorage Symphony Orchestra requested an arrangement for tuba solo
and orchestra. With funding from the United Arts Council of Greensboro — a Piedmont
Artists Hub Grant — an arrangement was made for the ASO and it was performed that
November. (At the request of Dr. AsKew, I made an arrangement for tuba solo and concert
band this past June. This most recent version had its world premiere in July at the Liszt
Academy in Budapest at the 2004 International Tuba/Euphonium Convention.)
The first movement is in a broad ternary form. The outer sections are based upon a
pentatonic melody, with a contrasting middle section featuring the Lydian mode. The slow
second movement expresses a prevailing sadness, interspersed with brief moments of
sunlight. The last movement is a joyous and humorous romp in ABACA rondo form, where
the tuba solo even gets a chance to challenge the violins in a bluegrass passage of its own!
Sergei Rachmaninoff :
Symphonic Dances, Op. 45
Initially composed for two pianos, Symphonic Dances was Rachmaninoff’s last completed
work. Rachmaninoff dedicated the orchestrated work to the premiering ensemble, one dear
to his heart: the Philadelphia Orchestra under the direction of Eugene Ormandy. As a friend
of the composer and a strong advocate of his work, Ormandy was one of a handful of
conductors who championed Rachmaninoff’s music despite criticism from commentators
and intellectuals. The sheer beauty and lyricism of Rachmaninoff’s style did not fit in to the
prevailing musical modernism of the early and middle twentieth century, which valued
rhythmic complexity, intellectual processing to determine melodic patterns, and non-tonal
harmonies. Rachmaninoff generally used a harmonic language that, though expanded from
traditional Classical era tonality, was still strongly tonal. His melodies were generally
smooth and beautiful, though intervals typical of somewhat angular Soviet music of the
early twentieth century make common appearances. Rachmaninoff’s work was often
classified as neo-Romantic when such a label was derogatory and meant to denote a lack
in artistic forward thinking. However, the lushness and easy intelligibility that earned
contempt from intellectuals, continues to keep Rachmaninoff’s music in the hearts of
audiences worldwide.
Symphonic Dances inhabits a stylistic world slightly foreign to that of Rachmaninoff’s
famous piano concertos. The piece is very accurately titled, in that the scope of the piece is
clearly symphonic, its three movements lasting approximately 40 minutes and scored for a
large, late Romantic orchestra (with the addition of an alto saxophone), rather than being a
dance suite or even ballet music. And yet, the orchestra seems to dance through the
work’s most important moments, with music reminiscent of waltz, Flamenco, and Russian
folk dances. The piece opens with soft strings, which seem to stammer and hesitate.
Eventually, they dive into a short theme, which obsessively drives the movement. After a
heartbreakingly beautiful and nostalgic melody from the alto saxophone, references the
main theme from his first symphony, the disastrous premier of which Rachmaninoff may
have been attempting to excise from his memory. The second movement, called a waltz,
seems to have more in common with a ghost story than a Viennese ball. The themes are
bittersweet, evoking a familiar, yet somehow otherworldly aura. “Uncanny”, in the Freudian
sense, might be the best way to describe this movement. Often described as a battle
between damnation and salvation, the final movement is filled with religious allusions. The
eminently recognizable “Dies Irae” Catholic chant, which makes appearances in much of
Rachmaninoff’s work, forms an important structural pillar of this movement recurring to
threaten wrath from the heavens throughout. Rachmaninoff declares salvation with a theme
from his own Russian Orthodox Vespers, “Glory to Thee, O Lord.” It functions as
important melodic content throughout the movement, but the theme’s most pivotal role is
when it returns amid a flurry of Flamenco-like rhythmic drive to triumphantly conclude the
work in a mad explosion of energy.
Richard Wagner:
Overture to The Flying Dutchman
The seventeenth-century ghost tale of the Flying Dutchman, drawn from a legend more
ancient than can be accurately determined, still finds its way into popular culture today.
From Disney’s Pirates of the Caribbean to a cameo on SpongeBob SquarePants, the icon
of the ship’s captain condemned to roam the seas after death has remained long after
ocean travel and commerce have faded from our lives. In the nineteenth century, however,
waterways were the primary mode of long-distance commerce and travel. Many legends of
the sea were common sources of inspiration for theater, literature, and song. Germanic
mythology has an especially long history of such tales and several different burial traditions
for sailors, not unlike Viking burial rites. Richard Wagner, in re-inventing opera as an art
form, relied heavily on Germanic legend and epic to give his operas an abstract, historical
grandeur beyond opulence of staging and costume. That the legend of the Flying
Dutchman, the Dutch merchant ship captain who posthumously roamed the seas having
vowed to round the Cape of Good Hope if he had to sail until doomsday, would capture his
artistic is therefore not surprising.
From the traditional ghost story, Wagner crafted an epic surrounding a sighting of the
Dutchman and his quest for a faithful love that would end his wanderings. Though he finds
true love, the beautiful young woman’s jilted ex-lover convinces the Dutchman that the
woman has been unfaithful, sending the Dutchman back to his unhappy roaming. As the
Dutchman boards his ship, Senta (the beautiful young woman) throws herself into the sea
to prove her fidelity and grant the Dutchman salvation.
The Flying Dutchman premiered in 1843 and became Wagner’s first real success, having
been his first decisive step in the new directions of opera as musical drama and total
artwork for which Wagner is most known today. Though the opera is no longer staged as
frequently as Wagner’s other epics, the overture maintains an important place in the
symphonic repertoire. As is typical of opera overtures, The Flying Dutchman overture
summarizes some of the most important themes of the opera: the Dutchman’s theme,
Senta’s theme, the calls of the sailors to shore, and dance theme of the Steer-man (the
Dutchman’s assistant). With very visually suggestive textures and long, lyrical themes, The
Flying Dutchman overture bears the unmistakable stamp of the mature style of its creator.
— —
Gregory Carroll:
Studies in American Folk Idiom
This work originated as a piece for cello and piano in response to a commission by the NC
Music Teachers Association. I intentionally chose a harmonic/melodic style that most North
Carolinians could appreciate, and the idea for such a work came from Vaughan Williams’s
Six Studies in English Folk Style for cello and piano (1926).
In his search for fresh music for his instrument, Dr. Dennis AsKew asked to look at the
score. After seeing the tempo/style indication (“bucolic”) for the first movement, he
remarked, “This piece has ‘tuba’ written all over it!” An arrangement for tuba and piano
followed. Subsequently, Dr. AsKew performed it over the years in various concerts,
including performances at International Tuba/Euphonium Association Conventions
worldwide.
In July 2003, the Anchorage Symphony Orchestra requested an arrangement for tuba solo
and orchestra. With funding from the United Arts Council of Greensboro — a Piedmont
Artists Hub Grant — an arrangement was made for the ASO and it was performed that
November. (At the request of Dr. AsKew, I made an arrangement for tuba solo and concert
band this past June. This most recent version had its world premiere in July at the Liszt
Academy in Budapest at the 2004 International Tuba/Euphonium Convention.)
The first movement is in a broad ternary form. The outer sections are based upon a
pentatonic melody, with a contrasting middle section featuring the Lydian mode. The slow
second movement expresses a prevailing sadness, interspersed with brief moments of
sunlight. The last movement is a joyous and humorous romp in ABACA rondo form, where
the tuba solo even gets a chance to challenge the violins in a bluegrass passage of its own!
Sergei Rachmaninoff :
Symphonic Dances, Op. 45
Initially composed for two pianos, Symphonic Dances was Rachmaninoff’s last completed
work. Rachmaninoff dedicated the orchestrated work to the premiering ensemble, one dear
to his heart: the Philadelphia Orchestra under the direction of Eugene Ormandy. As a friend
of the composer and a strong advocate of his work, Ormandy was one of a handful of
conductors who championed Rachmaninoff’s music despite criticism from commentators
and intellectuals. The sheer beauty and lyricism of Rachmaninoff’s style did not fit in to the
prevailing musical modernism of the early and middle twentieth century, which valued
rhythmic complexity, intellectual processing to determine melodic patterns, and non-tonal
harmonies. Rachmaninoff generally used a harmonic language that, though expanded from
traditional Classical era tonality, was still strongly tonal. His melodies were generally
smooth and beautiful, though intervals typical of somewhat angular Soviet music of the
early twentieth century make common appearances. Rachmaninoff’s work was often
classified as neo-Romantic when such a label was derogatory and meant to denote a lack
in artistic forward thinking. However, the lushness and easy intelligibility that earned
contempt from intellectuals, continues to keep Rachmaninoff’s music in the hearts of
audiences worldwide.
Symphonic Dances inhabits a stylistic world slightly foreign to that of Rachmaninoff’s
famous piano concertos. The piece is very accurately titled, in that the scope of the piece is
clearly symphonic, its three movements lasting approximately 40 minutes and scored for a
large, late Romantic orchestra (with the addition of an alto saxophone), rather than being a
dance suite or even ballet music. And yet, the orchestra seems to dance through the
work’s most important moments, with music reminiscent of waltz, Flamenco, and Russian
folk dances. The piece opens with soft strings, which seem to stammer and hesitate.
Eventually, they dive into a short theme, which obsessively drives the movement. After a
heartbreakingly beautiful and nostalgic melody from the alto saxophone, references the
main theme from his first symphony, the disastrous premier of which Rachmaninoff may
have been attempting to excise from his memory. The second movement, called a waltz,
seems to have more in common with a ghost story than a Viennese ball. The themes are
bittersweet, evoking a familiar, yet somehow otherworldly aura. “Uncanny”, in the Freudian
sense, might be the best way to describe this movement. Often described as a battle
between damnation and salvation, the final movement is filled with religious allusions. The
eminently recognizable “Dies Irae” Catholic chant, which makes appearances in much of
Rachmaninoff’s work, forms an important structural pillar of this movement recurring to
threaten wrath from the heavens throughout. Rachmaninoff declares salvation with a theme
from his own Russian Orthodox Vespers, “Glory to Thee, O Lord.” It functions as
important melodic content throughout the movement, but the theme’s most pivotal role is
when it returns amid a flurry of Flamenco-like rhythmic drive to triumphantly conclude the
work in a mad explosion of energy.
