Dmitri Shostakovich:  The Silly Little Mouse (film by Mikhail Tsekhanovsky) (1939) 16’

Lev Zhurbin: Only Love (film by Lev Polyakov) (2008) 15’

Vyacheslav Artyomov arr. Zhurbin: Boy is a Boy (film by Natasha Golovanova) (1986) 11’

 Intermission

George F. Bristow: “Nocturno” from F# minor symphony, Op. 26 (1858) 8’

Sufjan Stevens: The B.Q.E.,  Mvt. 6, “Isorhythmic Night Dance With Interchanges” (2007) 3’

Matt Mehlan:  New Work (15′)

Why should this program be chosen?

This concert focuses on our city, whether it is the music that matters to the borough’s people, or music created by the borough’s great artists. The first half of the concert features the great (yet rarely explored) musical scores of Soviet-era cartoons, taking both serious and cynical looks back at Soviet Union history. This concert has been uniquely designed to serve the Russian community of Brighton Beach, rarely a target constituent of our city’s music organizations. If their interest in this concert is any indication, they’ll be dedicated supporters for many years to come.

The second half of the program features composers from our city, including George Bristow, whose tremendous F# symphony is rarely heard, even though the composer hailed from a well-to-do and prominent local music family. Sufjan Stevens’ B.Q.E., as well as Matt Mehlan’s new work, represent an aesthetic relatively new to the orchestral world, and in so very many ways definitive of our city.

Aaron Copland: Piano Concerto 16’

Dave Longstreth (of the Dirty Projectors): New Work 15′

Intermission

Mos Def arr. Derek Bermel: Life in Marvelous Times and other songs 30’

Pianist, TBA
Singer, TBA

Why should this program be chosen?

All the composers on this program are from our city, and all the pieces combine vernacular and symphonic elements in original, idiosyncratic, and unmistakably our city ways. To begin, Copland’s piano concerto was a real breakout work for him as a young composer (he was 26). Shortly after returning to here from Paris, where he studied with Boulanger, Copland began the piano concerto. Deliberately attempting to create an identifiably American symphonic voice, Copland incorporated jazz elements in the work.

Dave Longstreth is among the most innovative and brilliant artists on the indie rock scene. He started his band, the Dirty Projectors, while a student at Yale, and he has long been deeply connected to the orchestral tradition. He studied music at Yale and wrote some student works for chamber orchestra, one of which was recorded and used as source material for his incredibly original Getty Address album. (This album was re-created live by AWS in 2010.) His work has the sort of complexity and sonic richness that makes him an ideal person to create for orchestra.

And Mos Def, of course, represents an incredible home town tradition. His lyrics are enormously powerful, but he’s also a great musician who’s deeply connected to many traditions of music making, including the orchestral one, and there’s a symphonic quality to many of the beats on his album that we’re very excited to bring to life with live instruments for the first time.

Franz Schreker: Prelude to a Drama

Alban Berg: Violin Concerto

Violinist tba

Intermission

Alma Mahler: Songs (orchestrated)

  Robynne Redmon, mezzo soprano

Gustav Mahler: Symphonic Prelude

Why should this program be chosen?

Austrian native Alma Mahler, known for her marriages and liaisons with artists (most notably Gustav Mahler), was both an inspiration to artists and a composer in her own right.  The year 2015 marks the 50^th anniversary of Alma Mahler’s death.

The repertoire composed at the turn of the last century in Vienna has always been of particular interest and a strong part of the repertoire of our orchestra.  The structure and profile of this program revolves around the amazing influence of Alma Mahler on her world, and includes music that she herself wrote.  The poignancy of her frustration as a woman composer in a man’s world is explored in her songs (now orchestrated), and the other three composers were important figures in the circle of her artistic life.  Franz Schreker had a passionate and important relationship with Alma Mahler.  Alban Berg composed his violin concerto in memory of the daughter Alma Mahler had with Walter Gropius, who died of polio at the age of 18.  Mahler acknowledged his wife as his most profound influence.  While the early piece of Gustav Mahler has not been conclusively proven to be his work, this uncertainty hold a special interest to musicians and scholars, and we are very interested in presenting a work that might not have been heard by most of the audience.

Adolphus Hailstork: An American Port of Call

Adolphus Hailstork: Launch Out on Endless Seas

  Kevin Deas, soloist

  Chorus

Intermission

Granville Bantock: Hebridean Symphony

 Why should this program be chosen?

Our orchestra’s relationship with composer Adolphus Hailstork dates back many years, and he has written a great number of pieces for our orchestra.  We hope to present two pieces, which represent bookends of Hailstork’s works, both an early and recent one.   Hailstork brilliantly illustrates the variety of styles and techniques that compose American culture.  He blends African-American musical ideals with European traditions creating diverse compositions that celebrate America in its truest musical persona.  Both of the works by Hailstork have been recorded..

Our orchestra is located in an area that boasts one of the world’s largest natural harbors, is enriched by thriving maritime industries, and houses one of the busiest ports on the Eastern seaboard.  An American Port of Call musically portrays a bustling port, where you will find both Dr. Hailstork and our orchestra.  The Bantock Hebridean Symphony is the final piece in a program with the sea as its centerpiece, which is relevant to the lives and landscape in Tidewater, Virginia, home of the first permanent European settlement in the Americas.  The influence of the English colonists is still strongly felt in our region, and we would be happy to champion a work by a British composer who is little known in our country.

Christopher Theofanidis: Rainbow Body 13’

George Chadwick: Elegy (in memoriam Horatio Parker) 9’

Edward MacDowell: Piano Concerto in D minor, Op. 23  26’

  Michael Brown, piano

Intermission

Charles Ives:  Three Places in New England 19’

Edward Elgar: Enigma Variations 29’

Why should this program be chosen?

The Edwardian composer Edward Elgar was no stranger to America.  He was awarded an honorary doctorate from Yale University (the New Haven Symphony Orchestra premiered his famous Pomp and Circumstance at the event).  He enjoyed numerous friendships and conducting engagements in New England, including a long-time friendship with our orchestra’s founding director.  This program journeys from Elgar’s time through three generations of New England composers:  from George Chadwick and Edward MacDowell to Charles Ives (Horatio Parker’s prized pupil) and finally Christopher Theofanidis.

The Program

George Gershwin: An American in Paris 16’

Irving Fine: Blue Towers  3’

George Walker: Lilacs (for strings) 6’

Virgil Thomson:  Five Songs from William Blake 16’

           The Divine Image; Tiger, Tiger! The land of Dreams; The Little Black Boy; …and did those feet
         Baritone, TBA

Intermission

Elliott Carter:  Three Occasions for Orchestra 16’

David Diamond: Elegy in Memory of Maurice Ravel  6’

Aaron Copland: Appalachian Spring 23’

Why should this program be chosen?

Virgil Thomson—“France was more than just another country…but a miracle spot like ancient Greece… Paris of the twenties was a ‘fertile moment’ in time and place that brought all the right elements together to attract and inspire the artistic mind.”

A program of composers influenced by Paris and/or the teaching of the great pedagogue Nadia Boulanger, who was more responsible than any other person for the creation and development of so many American composers and their music.  Paris in the twenties offered a place of refuge to artists from the oppression of prohibition, censorship (political and sexual) and poverty—for the artists it was a privilege to be poor in Montparnasse!

Andrew Balfour: Wa Wa Tey Wak   15’

Vincent Ho:  The Shaman: Concerto for Percussion and Orchestra  25’

Intermission

Atli Heimir Sveinsson: Symphony No. 2  60’

Camerata Nova, Andrew Balfour, director

Prairie Voices

Dame Evelyn Glennie, percussionist

Why should this program be chosen?

Canadian composer Andrew Balfour is half Scottish, half Cree, which reflects the still rare combination of the Western culture with the transcending world of the American/Canadian natives.  Wa Wa Tey Wak (Northern Lights) is based on a modern legend about a young girl who lived 300 years ago in what we now call Canada.  She is transported to modern times in Winnipeg, a city with the world’s largest Aboriginal population existing in an imbalance of wealth and poverty, where she is redeemed by the Northern Lights.  This beautiful choral/orchestral work features indigenous chant and percussion.

Vincent Ho’s The Shaman is a dazzling percussion concerto composed for Dame Evelyn Glennie and premiered by her with our orchestra.  The piece reflects in a very powerful way the indigenous culture.

Symphony No. 2 by Atil Heimir Sveinsson is perhaps the most epic Icelandic work for orchestra and chorus that creates a synthesis between the meditative sound world of the country with the more angular language of Europe.  Our province  has the largest population of Icelandic residents outside of Iceland, so the choice was a natural one.

Derek Charke:  13 Inuit Throat Song Games  13’

Vincent Ho:  The Shaman: Concerto for Percussion and Orchestra 25’

Intermission

R. Murray Schafer: Symphony No. 1  34’

Tanya Tagaq, Throat Singer

Dame Evelyn Glennie, percussionist

Why should this program be chosen?

For the past 20 years, our orchestra has presented a week-long New Music Festival that has reached international stature.  Our program reflects the teeming activity of three living Canadian composers plus a representation of a unique area of Canada rarely heard outside its borders.

Amy Marcy Cheney Beach:  Symphony No. 2 in E minor, Op. 32, “Gaelic” 41’

Intermission

Peggy Stuart Coolidge:  Blue Planet 7’

Margaret Brouwer: Newly Commissioned Work 10’

Gabriela Lena Frank:  Three Latin American Dances 16’

Why should this program be chosen?

Women composers have struggled for recognition for more than 200 years.  From the repression of Fanny Mendelssohn Hensel and Clara Wieck Schumann to the discouragement and neglect of female composers and performers alike well into the 20^th century, the symphonic world has lost many opportunities to showcase dynamic compositions and performances by women artists.  This concert provides a long-awaited opportunity to journey through 115 years of accomplishments from American women composers and to revel in the musical creativity of some of America’s best female artists.

George Whitefield Chadwick: Angel of Death 14’

Howard Hanson: Symphony No. 2, “Romantic” 28’

Intermission

William Grant Still: Sahdji 45’

  With Choreography by FUTURPOINTE Dance, a premier fusion dance company

Why should this program be chosen?

Howard Hanson’s American Music Festival (1925-1971) and our orchestra were partners in one of the most significant efforts in American music history not only to bring new symphonic compositions into existence but also to foster their continued performances.  Hundreds of compositions had their premieres, including William Grant Still’s Afro-American Symphony in 1931, one of the first performances of an African-American symphony in the United States.