Peter George Borotto
composer
Senior Recital
Saturday, March 24, 2012
3:30 pm
Recital Hall, Music Building
Program
Discourse: Tété-á-Tété (2012) Peter George Borotto
Jacqueline Bennett, Katie Jones, Amber Owens,
Matthew Rock, Jackie I. Wood, Zakkiya Villegas, dancers
Wendy Brockman, choreographer
Suite for Popular Guitar (2009)
II.
Peter George Borotto, Jamie Rowen, guitar
Time to Play (2011)
Peter George Borotto, Jamie Rowen, guitar and vocals
Goodbye My Love (2010)
Mariko Davison, Molly Hines, David Parks, Kelsey Philbrick,
Steven Rahn, Sara Soltau, Galen Tim, violin
Eric Eakes, Ingrid Popp, Matthew Sharpe, viola
Nathan Martin, Charles Rasmussen, Domenic Sabol, cello
Intermission
A Pair of Love Songs by Sara Teasdale (2011)
I. A Prelude to the Thought of You
II. My Sun and Stars Are You
Rebekah Bray, Chelsea Knapp, Jessica Mariskanish, Nicole Ramsey, soprano
Miranda Freeman, Esha Grover, Anne-Claire Niver, Sarah Tueting, Diana Yodzis, alto
Nick Daniel, Jay Peeler-Dean, Matthew Reese, Blayne Ziegenfuss, tenor
Lesly Dume, Cole Freeman, Austin Jeffries, James Williams, bass
Black Rock Falls (2009)
Last Autumn Sky (2011)
Mariko Davison, Molly Hines, David Parks, Kelsey Philbrick,
Steven Rahn, Sara Soltau, Galen Tim, violin
Eric Eakes, Ingrid Popp, Matthew Sharpe, viola
Nathan Martin, Charles Rasmussen, Domenic Sabol, cello
Cody Rex, bass
Peter George Borotto is a student of Dr. Mark Engebretson, and Dr. Alejandro Rutty.
________
In partial fulfillment of the degree requirements for the
Bachelor of Music in Composition
Discourse: Tète-à-Tète (2012)
When you speak, are your words all that can be heard? It is often the
subtle movements which are inaudible that color a conversation. We
find that even when words are absent in transmission, our thoughts can be clearly
articulated or peculiarly miscommunicated all together.
Suite for Popular Guitar, movement II (2009)
The Suite for Popular Guitar is a three movement work designed to be played on any
kind of guitar for any kind of player. It incorporates the styles of popular guitar
within the framework of traditional classical forms. This particular movement of the
suite is nicknamed “The Usual Suspects” because of its improvisational nature and
chords that are commonly executed by and especially unique to the guitar.
Time to Play (2011)
I play with you ‘cause I like your moves
And everything that you seem to say
A date or two, and my search is through
You’re my girl, there’s no other way
So please don’t think I’m one of the rest
‘Cause you should know by now
I think you are simply the best
And it’s only you I’m crazy about
Chorus:
Well I hear you say, you’re the only one for me
And I just want to be the only one for you
The gold in your eyes gives me many butterflies
Knowing you love me, I feel so lucky
To play with you and I never lose,
‘Cause there’s a kiss at the end of the game
A smile or two, and you’ve become my muse
You’re the light that brightens my day
So will you be here until the end,
When the world comes crashing down?
I’ll sing this song for you every night,
And I’ll run with you where we can’t be found
Chorus
--Peter G. Borotto
Goodbye My Love (2010)
We’re living in a strange world where no one gets just what they need
And when it comes to you, girl, the heart you seek resides in me
Imagine how it feels to be constantly ignored
While your heart it screams, the words it seems you could never say before
I’ve tried to sing my love to you and that’s the best that I can do
To show you I’m the love that’s true.
Chorus:
So goodbye my love,
You did not believe in our destiny
Goodbye my love,
You’ll no longer be the blood I bleed
And I’ll be there for you at night
And I’ll bare heat when you are cold
But don’t expect a kiss goodnight
Because that story’s getting old.
With every little detail, you try and keep me in this game
But girl I’ll tell you straight up—your affections only bring me shame
Why do you even feel bad,
Letting me go? It’s just not fair,
It’s too late, it’s over, reject me when you’re sober,
You don’t deserve my care.
I’ve tried to sing my love to you and that’s the best that I can do
To show you I’m the love that’s true.
Chorus
So goodbye my love,
You did not believe in our destiny
Goodbye my love,
You chose not to be the one I need
I won’t forget about our time,
Even when we’re growing old,
And one day you will realize all you’ve lost.
--Peter G. Borotto
A Pair of Love Songs by Sara Teasdale (2011)
I have been reading the poetic works of Sara Teasdale (1884 – 1933) since I was young,
when every new emotional situation in which I found myself meant the world to me.
I find that Teasdale has a way of painting wildly intense and romantic situations, into
which she inexorably draws her reader. Like Teasdale, I call for the listener to become
wrapped up in my “world” as well, and it is this quality of her emotionally
demanding poems that I seek to replicate in my music.
A Prelude to the Thought of You
I have remembered beauty in the night,
Against black silences I waked to see
A shower of sunlight over Italy
And green Ravello dreaming on her height;
I have remembered music in the dark,
The clean swift brightness of a fugue of Bach's,
And running water singing on the rocks
When once in English woods I heard a lark.
But all remembered beauty is no more
Than a vague prelude to the thought of you --
You are the rarest soul I ever knew,
Lover of beauty, knightliest and best;
My thoughts seek you as waves that seek the shore,
And when I think of you, I am at rest.
My Sun and Stars Are You
YOU bound strong sandals on my feet,
You gave me bread and wine,
And bade me out, 'neath sun and stars,
For all the world was mine.
Oh take the sandals off my feet,
You know not what you do;
For all my world is in your arms,
My sun and stars are you.
--Sara Teasdale
Black Rock Falls (2009)
Black Rock Falls is an adventurous piece for strings that based upon my adolescent
summers navigating a creek near Potomac, Maryland. Just like the waters themselves,
the piece begins as a trickle that falls from above before moving into the turbulent
rapids that texture the countryside. Before the listener can comprehend all of the fluid
obstacles just cleverly maneuvered, he or she finds oneself surrounded by a vivid and
unfamiliar landscape that fades with the majestic tide into the distance…
Last Autumn Sky (2011)
Last Autumn Sky was completed on December 21, 2011, the longest night of the year:
the Winter solstice. On this day, the Sun hangs just above the horizon, slowly
struggling to rise just one more inch into the sky. In a few hours, the encroaching
night robs our star of all life and the vibrant harmonies that begin this work turn to an
impending sorrow as the last day of Autumn faded away. In one swift motion, the
florescent Winter Moon sweeps in and silences all of our pleas for the Autumn sky to
return. We hear the gentle melody of Autumn transformed by a frigid Winter gust
and it becomes hard to imagine ever seeing our world in the same light again. But just
as all hope is lost, Winter makes a fatal move and brings us to the darkest hour the
Earth has ever seen. In a flash, a brilliant ray of light scorches the Earth with warmth
and the Sun ends all of Winter’s violent efforts to keep the season from changing. The
winds are calmed, mountains are freed from their frozen harnesses, and the forests
can finally feast again. And for us, the joys of Spring bring hope once again that we
may witness the beauty of another Autumn Sky.
Peter George Borotto (b. 1990) is a composer from the Washington D.C. area where
he has been performing as a singer/songwriter at the age of 14. Mr. Borotto is an
accomplished performer on guitar, tuba, drum set, and piano; he has played a wide
variety of venues, from performances at the Kennedy Center in a choral series with
the National Symphony Orchestra to regular gigs in coffee houses. As a composer,
Mr. Borotto won Cagney Mac’s 2011 Publishing Competition with the string orchestra
work Black Rock Falls, which has led him to publish several works with Cagney Mac
Publishing in Summer 2011. He has also written an original fight song for UNC
Greensboro and has arranged five published acapella works for Catholic University
of America’s Take Note Acapella. His classical works have been performed by such
ensembles as the UNCG Wind Ensemble, Gate City Camerata, and The New
Symphony. Aside from performing with acoustic instruments, Borotto is fluent with
many of the most important music production software packages.
Borotto is currently in his last year of the composition program at The University of
North Carolina at Greensboro, where he studies music composition with Mark
Engebretson and Alejandro Rutty, and tuba with Dennis Askew. He studied
conducting with Robert Gutter and piano with George Kiorpes and performs with the
UNCG Symphony Orchestra. Peter is an active member of ASCAP and Phi Mu Alpha
Sinfonia.
Wendy Brockman is a Teaching Assistant and third year MFA student in dance at the
University of North Carolina at Greensboro. Born and raised in Dayton, Ohio, she
received her BFA from the Ohio University in 2001. She worked as adjunct dance
faculty from 2003-2009 at Stivers School for the Arts (Dayton Public Schools) and
Sinclair Community College. Her choreography has received awards from the
Dayton Actors Guild and from charity events hosted for the Dayton Humane Society.
Wendy was a performer and choreographer with the SMAG Dance Collective and
served as Artistic Director for the Contemporary Dance of Sinclair.
