Cuesheet Performance Guide
National Symphony Orchestra Young People’s Concert The NSO Young People’s Concerts are sponsored by The Volgenau Foundation.
Michelle Merrill, Guest Conductor Marissa Regni, NSO Principal Second Violinist Fabiolla da Silva (as Alina), Special Guest Written by Miriam Gonzales
Welcome to a Mu In honor of many women getting the right to vote and all the hard work behind achieving it, the National Symphony Orchestra (NSO) is throwing a musical party showcasing the work of eight trailblazing female composers.
A Big Milestone Early on in United States history, women didn’t have voting rights. That barrier prevented women from participating in government and having their voices heard. In 1848, activists at the Seneca Falls Convention in New York began campaigning for women’s suffrage on the national level. It would be a long road. But after decades of conferences, marches, and protests, the 19th Amendment to the Constitution passed Congress in 1919 and was ratified in 1920, securing voting rights for women—though it would take decades for First Peoples, Black, and Latina women to enjoy those rights.
Overcoming Challenges in Music, Too For centuries, women also faced similar barriers in having their musical voices heard in a field traditionally dominated by men. Fortunately, they, too, forged ahead, powered by their talent and passion for music. Today, more women conduct orchestras, perform in orchestras, and compose music than ever before. You can hear their artistry in concert halls as well as on the radio, on Broadway stages, and in movie theaters.
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usical Celebration Bringing the Power of Music to the Stage Who better to lead a celebration of women in music than some remarkable women? Let’s meet your hosts for the concert: Conductor Michelle Merrill will lead the orchestra, guiding the musicians on when and how fast and loud to play. She loves conducting—even more so when she’s sharing new music with audiences like you. You’ll learn a lot about the composers and their music from her throughout the performance. And talk about “girl power”—Michelle is a rising star who has conducted orchestras all over the world. Violinist Marissa Regni is a musician at the top of her game, which you’ll hear firsthand during the concert. She’s been with the NSO for more than 20 years and has performed all over the world.
Photo by Scott Suchman Photo by Brittany Nicole
All the music you’ll hear is performed by the nearly 100 musicians of the National Symphony Orchestra. The Kennedy Center is the main home for the orchestra, but the NSO also performs on other local stages as well as on TV and the radio. Notice that the orchestra is organized by families of instruments. Learn more about them (and how to watch and listen for them) in our online Guide to the Orchestra.
Photo by Clinton Brandhagen
During the performance, you’ll hear music from eight women composers. These musical powerhouses faced different challenges in creating music, but all of them achieved groundbreaking success. Turn the page to learn more.
Photo by Scott Suchman
Fabiolla da Silva is playing the part of Alina, a young woman who lives next door to Michelle Merrill, loves classical music, and whose interest in women composers of classical music inspired today’s concert! Fabiolla is a local D.C. actor and she is so excited to be making her Kennedy Center debut!
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Meet the Compose Joan Tower: Uncommon Trailblazer (born 1938)
Fanfare for the Uncommon Woman (part 1) Joan Tower has been described as “one of the most successful woman composers of all time.” For more than 50 years, she’s blazed new musical trails, fueled by a lifelong desire to keep learning and taking risks. She learned piano as a young child but got hooked on composing music while in college. Among other things, her music is influenced by her love of Beethoven, jazz music, and the rhythms of South America, where she grew up. She modeled her fanfare (a brief and lively piece usually featuring brass instruments) after American composer Aaron Copland’s Fanfare for the Common Man—but with a twist. It salutes the “uncommon woman,” someone who is adventurous and takes risks (like Joan herself).
Listen for the… ❖ g alloping rhythm that gives a sense of adventure and urgency. ❖ bold, strong brass tones and patterns with occasional unusual or odd notes.
❖ forceful beginning and end with snare drum and timpani.
Élisabeth Jacquet de la Guerre: Music Marvel (1665–1729)
Violin Sonata no. 1 in D Minor, the seventh movement Élisabeth Jacquet de la Guerre was daring with her music. Born into a family of harpsichord makers in Paris, France in the late 1600s, she learned that pianolike keyboard instrument as a young girl and even charmed King Louis XIV with her musicianship. But composing became her true artistic passion, and she ignored the fact that at the time, most women’s public careers ended after marriage. She became the first French woman to compose and have an opera performed. Later her violin sonatas captured attention for her bold embrace of the Italian sonata form (music for a solo instrument and accompaniment) and the violin. People around the world marveled at her talent and compositions.
Listen for the… ❖ detailed structure and fancy ornamentation that marked the Baroque musical style of the time.
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❖ very fast tempo (speed of playing), described as presto. ❖ dancing, sparkling sounds of the violin solo.
sers and Their Music Florence Price: True Pioneer (1887–1953)
Symphony no. 1, the third movement When young Florence Price wanted to learn music in Little Rock, Arkansas, in the early 1900s, none of the leading white teachers in town would teach her because she was Black. That didn’t stop her. She initially studied with her mother and then later attended music college in Boston. Her first full symphony won a composing prize and became the first symphony written by a Black female composer to be performed by a major American orchestra in 1933. Her music often combines European and African-American traditions, which you’ll hear at the concert. That musical selection captures the syncopated (accents on weak or unusual beats) rhythms of the African-American “Juba Dance.” First introduced by enslaved people, this dance features stomping and slapping or patting of arms and legs to create percussive rhythms.
Listen for the… ❖ d ancing and skipping sounds of the melody. ❖ African drums. ❖ playful slide whistle effect.
Lili Boulanger: Shooting Star (1893–1918)
D’un matin de printemps When a scientist names an asteroid in your honor, you must be pretty out of this world—which describes French composer Lili Boulanger (pronounced boo-lahn-JEY; for whom the asteroid 1181 Lilith was named). She was the first woman to win a prestigious French arts scholarship for composition, which enabled her to further her musical career. She wrote more than 50 works in her very short life, and captured the ears and imaginations of the French public with her vibrant, strong compositions. Her work D’un matin de printemps (French for “of a spring morning”) uses music to “paint” a picture or scene—known as a symphonic poem. What do you imagine when you hear it?
Listen for the…
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❖ shimmering, sparkling sounds suggesting the sunrise. ❖ strong, playful rising and falling sounds of the full orchestra. ❖ tingling triangle at the end.
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Jennifer Higdon: Renaissance Woman (born 1962)
“Amazing Grace” Jennifer Higdon forged her own path to becoming one of America’s most frequently performed modern composers— and a Pulitzer Prize-winner, too. She didn’t start in music until she took up percussion in high school and then taught herself flute. She began composing at age 21—which some people said was too late. Luckily, she didn’t listen. She brings unique inspirations to her style, including the Beatles and Rolling Stones as well as the folk traditions from her childhood home in Tennessee. In her music, she’s known for fresh takes on classical traditions, so it’s no surprise that she composed variations for the popular folk hymn “Amazing Grace.”
Listen for the… ❖ r ich layers of sounds created by the string quartet. ❖ beginning that follows the basic theme of the original song. ❖ tempo and key changes, flourishes, and other variations to the main theme.
Gabriela Lena Frank: Musical Globetrotter (born 1972)
“Mestizo Waltz” from Three Latin American Dances Listen to the sounds of America’s great melting pot in the works of composer Gabriela Lena Frank. Born in California to a Peruvian-Chinese mother and Jewish-Lithuanian father, she honors her “mestizo” (mixed race) by combining different sounds and traditions in her music. Frank was born with moderate hearing loss and uses hearing aids as an assistive device. She loved music early on, and worked hard to become an influential composer. Her “Mestizo Waltz” celebrates and blends musical ideas. Think upbeat South American rhythms along with percussion instruments of enslaved Africans, set to the patterns and melodies of Spanish ballads, mixed with traditions of Western brass bands.
Listen for the… ❖ trumpets in the style of Spanish singers. ❖ s trumming of violins and pizzicato (plucking the strings) of cellos 4
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creating guitar-like sounds.
❖ wide range of percussion instruments, including castanets, conga
drums, shekere (an African gourd and bead shaker), and rainsticks.
Pinar Toprak: Movie Musicmaker (born 1980)
“Captain Marvel” (main theme) from the Captain Marvel film soundtrack Dreaming big and working hard got Turkish-American composer Pinar Toprak (PEE-nar TOE-prak) where she is today. She is standing tall as the first woman composer of a major comic book movie—2019’s Captain Marvel. At five, Toprak began her musical studies in her native Turkey and continued when she moved to the United States at 17. She always loved the art of writing music and telling stories through music, so she set her sights on scoring (writing music for) films. After composing music for short films, documentaries, and the Fortnite video game, she won the job of composer for the superhero blockbuster.
Listen for the… ❖ o pening ostinato (os-tin-NAH-to), a repeated rhythmic pattern. ❖ bold, strong French horn melody that begins with a dramatic rise
in pitch (highness or lowness of sound) and conveys the heroine’s physical strengths.
❖ softer string passages, suggesting Captain Marvel’s sensitive side.
Amy Beach: Rebel Rouser (1867–1944)
Gaelic Symphony in E Minor, the fourth movement When Czech composer Antonín Dvor̆ák dismissed women as not having “creative power” in music, composer Amy Beach stepped right up to prove him wrong—first in a forceful letter, then by her own work. Not only did she compose the first major symphony to be published by an American woman, she was one of the first composers to capture a distinctly American sound in a classical composition. Her Gaelic Symphony draws on melodies and sounds of Irish (Gaelic) folk songs and English and Scottish musical traditions of early American immigrants. Her musical talents became clear early on when she was composing waltzes by age four. She became famous in her lifetime for her groundbreaking compositions and was regarded as the dean (head) of American women composers—accomplishments that suffragists held up as a symbol of women’s leadership and success.
Listen for the… ❖ strong, bold start and triumphant finish. ❖ energetic, leaping musical patterns contrasted with softer, flowing passages.
❖ soaring melodies in both strong and gentle sections.
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Things to Think and Talk About
What’s the Big Idea?
After the performance, keep thinking and talking about the music and performance. Here are some questions to discuss afterward:
To write music, composers start with a theme or idea. Often ideas come from experiences, culture, memories, travels, art, stories, nature, other people, and more. Then composers imagine sounds and the ways musical instruments can bring them to life. For example, wind might be sweeping notes from the string instruments, a chase might be accelerating notes from the tuba, or a shimmering lake might be the tingling of the triangle.
❖ What was your favorite music, and why? ❖ What ideas do you think your favorite pieces of music expressed?
❖ What stories did you imagine as you listened to the different music? Draw or describe them.
❖ What differences did you notice between older and newer musical works?
❖ Which composers would you like to learn more about and hear more music from? Why? What questions would you ask them?
❖ How did history and the composers’ own lives affect the music they wrote?
❖ How can talent, hard work, and a passion for music break down barriers?
❖ How would you like to make music in your own life? Play it? Sing it? Write it? Conduct it? Why?
Try it yourself. Imagine a place or idea important to you, and brainstorm sounds the orchestra can make to express that idea through music. Share your ideas with friends. During the performance, listen closely to each piece and imagine places, experiences, or feelings—and also how each composer’s unique culture, setting, and experience influenced her work.
Music and Life
Beach Composer Amy usic is the has said that m of life best expression t do you ha experiences. W ? Do you think she means why not? agree? Why or
Getting Ready for the Concert Music sounds super powerful when you’re in the Concert Hall. Knowing what to expect beforehand can help you be an awesome audience member. Get the scoop in our online Guide to the Orchestra.
David M. Rubenstein Deborah F. Rutter
NSO Young People’s Concerts are made possible in part by the generous support of the A. James & Alice B. Clark Foundation; the Kimsey Endowment; The Morris and Gwendolyn Cafritz Foundation; and Dr. Gary Mather and Ms. Christina Co Mather.
Jordan LaSalle
NSO Young People’s Concerts are also made possible by the generous support of the Paul M. Angell Family Foundation.
Gianandrea Noseda Music
Major support for educational programs at the Kennedy Center is provided by David M. Rubenstein through the Rubenstein Arts Access Program.
Chairman President
Vice President Education Director National Symphony Orchestra
Kennedy Center education and related artistic programming is made possible through the generosity of the National Committee for the Performing Arts. © The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts