Fall 2011 Concert

Sunday, October 30 4:00pmFair Haven School

Welcome

Welcome to the first concert of the 2011-2012 Concert Series for the New Haven Chamber Orchestra!

Your generous contributions directly support the or-chestra’s mission to make music more available to the residents of the Greater New Haven area. The orches-tra has 501(c) non-profit status which allows us to ac-cept tax-deductible donations.

For those who are returning, we thank you for your continued patronage, and we warmly welcome those for whom this is a first NHCO concert. We hope you enjoy today’s performance.

Program

In the Steppes of Central Asia Alexander Borodin (1833-1887)

Piano Concerto in A minor Op 16 Edvard Greig (1843-1907)

I. Allegro molto moderatoII. AdagioII. Allegro moderato molto e marcato - Andante quasi - Presto

Symphony No 4 in D minor Op 120 Robert Schumann (1810-1856) I. Ziemlich langsam - Lebhaft II. Romanze: Ziemlich langsam III. Scherzo: Lebhaft IV. Langsam; Lebhaft

We ask that you please turn off all cell phones and pagers prior to the concert. We also ask that you refrain from any flash photography or filming during today’s concert.

10 minute intermission

Program NotesBorodin

Alexander Borodin is one of the most colorful characters in Russian musical history, primarily because he wasn’t a pro-fessional musician at all. The illegitimate son of an Armenian prince and a doctor’s wife, Borodin devoted his life to pio-neering research on chemistry. Borodin was fascinated with the far reaches of the Russian empire, where European Rus-sia merged with the mysterious world of Asia. This piece starts with an etherial harmonic on the violins, with the main theme entering and played by oboe, clarinet, and horn.

The composer himself wrote the following about his work:“In the silence of the monotonous steppes of Central Asia is heard the unfamiliar sound of a peaceful Russian song. From the distance we hear the approach of horses and camels and the bizarre and melancholy notes of an oriental mel-ody. A caravan approaches, escorted by Russian soldiers, and continues safely on its way through the immense des-ert. It disappears slowly. The notes of the Russian and Asiatic melodies join in a common harmony, which dies away as the caravan disappears in the distance.”String harmonics, haunting woodwind solos and triumphant bell-like passages combine to form the beauty and unique-ness of this piece.

Grieg

The Piano Concerto in A minor was written by then 24-year-old Grieg in 1868. It is the only concerto that Grieg com-posed. There can be little question that Grieg modeled the entire first movement of his concerto rather closely after that of Schumann’s. However, although Grieg was inspired by Schumann’s style, this work displays a unique nature of its own, and is heavily linked to his Norwegian roots. The piece and conductor were highly regarded by fellow composers at the time including Franz Liszt and Pytor Ilych Tcaikovsky.

Program NotesGrieg revised the work at least seven times, usually in subtle ways, but amounting to over 300 differences from the origi-nal orchestration. In one of these revisions, he undid Franz Liszt’s suggestion to give the second theme of the first move-ment (as well as the first theme of the second) to the trum-pet rather than the ‘celli among other changes. The final version of the concerto was completed only a few weeks before Grieg’s death, and it is this version that has achieved worldwide popularity.

Schumann

“He has begun a new symphony,” wrote Clara Schumann in her diary entry for 31st May 1841. “As yet I have heard noth-ing about it, but, from Robert’s way of going on, and D minor sounding wildly in the distance, I know that another work is being created in the depths of his soul.” This was, of course, the D Minor Symphony,which was the 2nd Symphony he composed, but after 10 years of rescoring and reorchestra-tion, it was published as No. 4. This symphony is noteworthy for its experimental approach to symphonic form. Although written in the usual four move-ments, the work draws on many of the same melodic ideas throughout. Principal themes reappear and are re-worked throughout the symphony; for example, the important intro-ductory theme for strings and bassoons also appears in the second movement; the principal theme of the first move-ment is also prominent in the finale, and the flowing violin solo of the Romanze appears recast in the trio of the scher-zo.The effect is more of a ‘symphonic fantasy’ (as Schumann originally labelled the piece) than a classical symphony, A further innovation is that the work forms an inter-connect-ed whole, written to be performed with little or no break between the individual movements.

Solo Artist

William Healy is currently in his senior year at Vassar College. He began taking piano lessons at age four, and he is now a composer, conductor, and jazz trumpet player as well as a pianist. William currently studies with Luiz de Moura Castro of the Hartt School of music and Anna Polonsky at Vassar. Wil-liam has received recognition for his abilities on the piano-- he has been awarded first prize in the CSMTA Young Artists piano competition (2011) the Chaminade Club Award and the Westchester Music Teacher’s Association awards in 2008, and the Nicholas Flagello Piano Competition (2004). He has appeared as a concerto soloist with the Yonkers Philharmon-ic, the New Haven Chamber Orchestra, and multiple times with the Vassar College Orchestra. In March 2008, William’s debut recital at Carnegie Weill Hall was sponsored by the Abby Whiteside Foundation. William conducts and directs the contemporary chamber ensemble Mahagonny at Vas-sar College. He received the Jean Slater Edson prize in 2010 for a composition for chamber orchestra titled, “Hashima.” Aside from music, William is on Vassar’s Cross Country and Track teams.

Our ConductorYang Jiao is a graduate of Central Conservatory of Music in Beijing, where he studied conducting with Professor Xin Xu and Mae-stro Yi Zhang and was assis-tant conductor to Maestro Yongyan Hu. He is currently pursuing his Master of Music in Orchestral Conducting at Yale School of Music, where

he studies with Maestro Shinik Hahm. In 2006, Mr. Jiao won Third Prize at the Shenzhen National Conducting Competition in China. Since that time, he has been invited to conduct at the Beijing Modern Music Festi-val annually. In 2007, Mr. Jiao took part in the London Sym-phony Orchestra’s Asia Tour, where he attended a master class with Maestro Daniel Harding and conducted the famous orchestra.

Since 2007, Mr. Jiao has been the resident guest conduc-tor of the Lanzhou Symphony Orchestra and the resident conductor of the Beijing Institute of Technology University Symphony Orchestra. He has also been the conductor of the Golden Tail Symphony Orchestra of Beijing No. 22 Middle School Symphony Orchestra and EOS Orchestra Academy; he led performances of both orchestras in 2009 at the National Center for the Performing Arts in Beijing. Mr. Jiao has also received warm praise by local audiences and critics for the performances of the Golden Tail Symphony Orchestra during their 2010 France Tour.

Though studying and working as a conductor, Mr. Jiao has never abandoned playing piano to this day. In August 2004, he won Second Prize in the First National Piano Com-petition for the German Beethoven Festival.

About Us

The New Haven Chamber Orchestra was founded in 2004 by Gordon Emerson as a group of community musicians who aspired to play the masterworks of orchestral chamber music. Since its inception the NHCO has delighted audienc-es with the great works from Mozart Sonatas to the famous Beethoven Symphonies and everything in between.

While the city of New Haven is rich in musical culture with professional groups such as the New Haven Symphony Or-chestra, non-professional groups such as the Civic Orches-tra, and the various Yale University groups, the NHCO is a special group dedicated to the playing of the more unique pieces of music collectively known as chamber music. The NHCO was formed to bring these pieces as well as those containing some of the most inspiring melodies and well known motifs to the New Haven community.

The orchestra is made up of 29 regular members that reside and work in our local communities. In fact, our diverse col-lection of players range from school teachers to scientists, lawyers, and business administrators. However diverse the orchestra is in profession, they all share a passion for music which we hope you will experience during today’s concert!

Violin IJoseph Tomasello*Jessica SackSusan UhlFu-Chen Yang

Violin IIJonathan Savant#Yaira MatyakubovaGerald OppenheimRobert Smith

ViolaMarc Mann#Carol JacksonAlice Leishman

CelloNatalie McClune#Kathy BarrettLaura BerraMark Steinhardt

BassPeter Witkin

FluteDave RosenblumCarol Steiner

OboeLauren BilelloKrista Hart

ClarinetMark WeinsteinDawn Wetzel

BassoonAdrienne GallagherDan Zelterman

TrumpetMaria MillerRick Sanislo

HornSheila DohertySigrun KahlCathryn Kubera KeatingJessica Shaver

TromboneRichard GosnayLisa RomeoDaniel Schwartz

PercussionJustin Haaheim

* concertmaster# principal

Members

The orchestra would like to thank the following people and organizations for their help with today’s concert:

Kim JohnskyPrincipal, Fair Haven School

New Haven Board of Education

The Mayor’s Community Arts Grant Program

The Community Foundation for Greater New Haven

Custodial StaffFair Haven School

Tyco Printing

Special Thanks