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Elgar Howarth

Born November 4, 1935; Cannock, Staffordshire, England

Chatham Dances for Brass and Percussion (1985)

Named in honor of the composer of the Enigma Variations, Elgar Howarth, conductor, composer, trumpeter, and arranger, was born into the family of the local brass band conductor in Staffordshire, England. His musical training inevitably started early, and by the age of ten he was playing in his father’s ensemble and four years later was promoted to principal cornetist. Howarth studied at Manchester University and later majored in composition at the Royal Manchester College of Music, where he formed New Music Manchester with fellow student composers Harrison Birtwistle, Alexander Goehr, and Peter Maxwell Davies and pianist John Ogdon to promote the performance of new music. After graduation, Howarth joined the Royal Opera House Orchestra as a trumpeter and went on to perform with the Royal Air Force Band, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, and Philip Jones Brass Ensemble before becoming conductor of the famed Grimethorpe Colliery Band. Howarth made his unexpected debut as a conductor during a tour with the London Sinfonietta in above: Elgar Howarth

Italy, which so impressed composer György Ligeti that he engaged him to conduct the premiere of his opera Le Grand Macabre in 1978.

Howarth’s conducting career flourished, with appearances with many leading British and international orchestras in a repertory that ranged from Mozart and Haydn to contemporary symphonic compositions and operas, including four by Harrison Birtwistle; from 1985 to 1988 he was principal guest conductor of Opera North and the company’s music advisor from 2002 to 2004. Howarth has also composed mainly for brass instruments, including works for brass band (he has maintained a regular association with the Grimethorpe Colliery Band throughout his career), concertos for trumpet and trombone, and numerous arrangements, including music of Richard Wagner and a highly praised one of Mussorgsky’s Pictures from an Exhibition.

Elgar Howarth on Chatham Dances

Chatham Dances was composed around 1985 in response to a commission from a local arts committee in the Medway area of the Thames estuary. Chatham is a town in that district. It was my idea to write a set of dances for the local Medway brass band, the pieces to be used as a ballet danced by local children. This proved to be impossible to organize, and the dances were played just once in concert instead.

There are seven movements:

1. Fanfare: Summons/Assembly. A gathering together of the dance company.

2. First General Dance in preparation for . . .

3. At Work, perhaps a factory. Machine-like music; humor: a bullying foreman; more humor: the foreman angry.

Peter Sculthorpe

4. Prelude—Summer Bells: a peaceful break from work.

5. The Women’s Dance: graceful, swaying, mysterious.

6. The Men’s Dance: heavy, strong, suddenly thoughtful, again heavy.

7. Summons Two: a signal for a new assembly and the end of the day’s work.

8. Exeunt: March Out. Workday ended: going home, happy, more humor: the foreman mocked.

Born April 29, 1929; Launceston, Tasmania, Australia Died August 8, 2014; Sydney, Australia

New Norcia for Brass and Percussion (2000)

Peter Sculthorpe, one of Australia’s leading late twentieth-century composers, was born in Launceston, Tasmania, in 1929 and educated at the Melbourne University Conservatorium of Music. He undertook advanced study with Egon Wellesz and Edmund Rubbra at Oxford University (1958–61) before joining the faculty of Sydney University in 1963. Sculthorpe also taught at the University of Sussex in England (1971–72), served as composer-in-residence at Yale University (1965–67), and held residencies at numerous conservatories and universities within and outside Australia. His honors included the Order of the British Empire and Order of Australia, Encyclopedia Britannica Award, recognition as a National Trust of Australia National Living Treasure, election to Foreign Honorary

Membership in the American Academy of Arts and Letters, and honorary degrees from the universities of Tasmania, Sydney, Melbourne, Sussex, and Griffith. Sculthorpe’s creative output—which encompasses operas, above: Peter Sculthorpe, photo © ballets, orchestral works, chamber compositions, and piano pieces—was influenced by traditional Western models, the music of several native Asian cultures (including Balinese gamelan, Tibetan chant, and Japanese instrumental music), and the folkways and landscape of his native land.

Peter Sculthorpe on New Norcia

In 1846, the Mission of New Norcia was founded in Western Australia by two Spanish Benedictine monks. A strong musical tradition developed there, originating with one of the founders, Dom Rosenda Salvado. Under him a choir, a string orchestra, and a band were formed, the three groups eventually consisting almost entirely of Aboriginal performers. A compassionate man, Salvado was often in conflict with colonial officials over their mistreatment of Aboriginal people. During the second half of the nineteenth century, New Norcia was one of the few places in Australia where Gregorian chant was sung. In a letter to Spain, written in 1878, Salvado mentions that “our boys and girls sang in two parts the Laudate Dominum, as they do every time they come to High Mass.” Salvado regarded music in its every form as a gift from God. His diaries, in fact, demonstrate a considerable understanding of Aboriginal chant and ritual. They contain what are probably the first significant writings on the subject.

Unlike much of my music, New Norcia makes no references to Aboriginal chant. It is, however, firmly based upon the plainchant melody Psalm 150, a song of praise for the Lord through music. In New Norcia, the six verses of the plainchant are each stated twice, the verses separated by either a short episode or an interlude. The latter are in regular meters, forming a contrast to the irregular meters of the plainchant, which differ from verse to verse. It seems to me that the Aboriginal children of New Norcia might have made some contribution of their own to the liturgy, and I have no doubt that Dom Salvado would have enjoyed this. For them, I have added drumming to the two interludes, the final verse, and the coda.

Paul Terracini

Born December 16, 1957; Sydney, Australia

Gegensätze (Contrasts) for Brass (2010)

Paul Terracini has led a multifaceted musical career as composer, conductor, arranger, and virtuoso trumpeter. Born in Sydney in 1957 and trained at the Sydney Conservatorium, Terracini was principal trumpet of the Australian Opera and Ballet Orchestra (1975–79) and a faculty member of the Queensland Conservatorium of Music (1982–88) before settling in Denmark in 1989. From that time until he returned to Sydney in 2007 as artistic director and principal conductor of the Penrith Symphony Orchestra, Terracini served as solo trumpet of the Danish Chamber Players and chairman and conductor of the Storstroms Symphony Orchestra; guest conducted in Germany, Denmark, and Italy; toured widely in Europe, the United States, South America, Australia, and Asia as a soloist and to lead master classes; and made ten CDs as conductor with the Prague Symphony Orchestra. He has written and conducted music for concerts, film, and television in Europe and Australia; his title music for the international television series Classical

Destinations was featured on the Number 1 Classical Album of 2007, released by Decca. In 2010, he composed two works for the International Trumpet Guild Annual Conference and conducted the gala concerts of that event. His most recent recording, Paul Terracini: Music for Brass, was chosen as the 2016 Best Ensemble CD of the Year by Britain’s Brass Band World Magazine Terracini is also a theologian and church historian and holds a doctorate in religious studies.

Paul Terracini on Gegensätze

(Contrasts)

Gegensätze (Contrasts), scored for four trumpets (including piccolo trumpet), four horns, three trombones, and tuba, was written in 2010 for the ensemble German Brass of Hamburg [it was premiered by the Chicago Symphony Orchestra Brass on December 14, 2011]. The work is in one movement but with clearly delineated sections, comprising an introduction followed by an A–B–A–B (modified) form. As the German title suggests, the essence of the work is the nature of contrast, or opposites. The introduction provides an explosive opening statement, followed by section A, which is redolent of American twentieth-century musical influences but without

“crossing over” into jazz. The B section is reminiscent of the Middle Ages in its simplicity, employing the intervals of the perfect fifth and perfect fourth at its core. Following the return of section A, section B is recapitulated with extended

Graeme Koehne

commentary from the trumpets, building to a climax in which the work concludes with the majesty of full brass choir in an unadorned statement of section B.

Born August 3, 1956; Adelaide, South Australia

Albany Harbour (The Voyage) for Brass and Percussion (2009)

Graeme Koehne has been among Australia’s leading composers and music teachers since the 1980s and is now gaining increasing attention internationally. Koehne was born in Adelaide in 1956 and completed his undergraduate and postgraduate studies at the Elder Conservatorium of Music of the University of Adelaide as a composition student of Richard Meale. Following graduation, Koehne taught at the University of New England in Armidale, New South Wales, where he composed Rainforest for orchestra, inspired by the tropical forests of northeastern Australia, which won the prestigious Australian Composers Award at the 1982 Adelaide Festival and brought him to national prominence. In 1985 he was awarded a Harkness Fellowship that enabled him to undertake advanced studies at Yale University; his teachers during his two years in America included Virgil Thomson, Louis Andriessen, and Jacob Druckman. Upon his return to Australia, Koehne joined the faculty of the Elder Conservatorium; he was appointed head of composition at the school in 2005. He has also chaired the Music Board of the Australian Council (the Australian government’s arts funding advisory body), served in various advisory capacities for the South Australian government, and was named South Australia’s composer-in-residence in 1998–99. His numerous distinctions include the first Centenary Medal awarded by the Australian government (2001), an honorary doctorate from the University of Adelaide (2002), Sir Bernard Heinze Award from the University of Melbourne (2004), and appointment as an Officer of the Order of Australia (2014). Koehne has composed in a wide variety of genres, from orchestra and opera to film and television, but he is especially known for his ballet scores.

Early in 1915, when World War I had ground to a costly stalemate in western Europe, the British opened a new front against Germany at the Dardanelles, the strategic passage from the Mediterranean to the Black Sea that was their Russian allies’ only southern sea route. The Dardanelles was controlled by the Ottomans, a German ally, and required a strong land force for its capture. On April 25, 1915, British troops and a large contingent from Australia and New Zealand— ANZAC: Australian and New Zealand Army Corps—landed on the Gallipoli Peninsula at the northern entrance to the Dardanelles and endured terrible conditions and enormous casualties before being driven off by the Ottomans nine months later: 123,598 in total,

elena kats-chernin

including 11,430 killed and 24, 193 wounded from ANZAC.

Though the undertaking was a disaster for the Allies, it came to be regarded as confirmation of Australia and New Zealand as a force in world affairs, and April 25, the date of the failed invasion, is observed annually as the two countries’ military memorial day. For ANZAC Day 2009, Graeme Koehne composed a work for brass and percussion titled Albany Harbour, the oldest seaport on Australia’s west coast and the principal embarkation point for the ANZAC forces. The work comprises evocative sequences entitled Departure from Albany Harbour, The Voyage: The Great Adventure, and Morning Prayer, and was premiered by the Australian Baroque Brass at the ANZAC Commemorative Site at North Beach Gallipoli in Turkey and broadcast live throughout Australia.

Born November 4, 1957; Tashkent, Uzbekistan

Mater (Mother) for Brass and Percussion

Elena Kats-Chernin has distilled her experiences and training on three continents into one of the leading voices in contemporary

Australian music. Born in 1957 in the Uzbekistan capital of Tashkent, KatsChernin early showed musical gifts, and was sent to the Russian Academy of Music in Moscow when she was fifteen years old. In 1975 she immigrated with her family to Australia, where she studied composition at the New South Wales Conservatory in Sydney with Richard Toop. Upon her graduation in 1980, she received a German government scholarship for advanced study in Hanover with Helmut Lachenmann; she remained in Germany for the next fourteen years, composing for theater, ballet, and concert. Since returning to Australia in 1994, Kats-Chernin has established herself as one of the country’s foremost composers, with a catalog that includes three operas; orchestral, chamber, piano, and vocal works; and film and theater scores. In 1996, she received both the Jean Bogan Memorial Prize for her piano solo piece Charleston Noir and the Sounds Australian Award for Cadences, Deviations, and Scarlatti for fourteen instruments. Her music was featured at the 2000 Olympic Games, 2003 Rugby World Cup in Sydney, and 2006 Brisbane Festival, and on March 18, 2007, her Our Bridge Overture was premiered during observances of the seventy-fifth anniversary of the Sydney Harbour Bridge. In 2011, Kats-Chernin was appointed composer-in-residence of the Queensland Symphony Orchestra. In 2014, she won both the

Award for Best Score for the production of Frankenstein at the Sydney Ensemble Theatre and the Sidney Myer Performing Arts Award, which recognizes outstanding achievement in the arts. In 2021, she received the Australian Women in Music Award for Artistic Excellence.

Elena Kats-Chernin on Mater

In 2000, I was asked to write Mater by the [Sydney vocal ensemble] Song Company and its director, Roland Peelman, for a concert on the theme of mother and child. After initially thinking of writing a lullaby, I opted for the Latin Crucifixion text Stabat mater The sorrowful Mother stood weeping by the cross where her Son was hanging—that emphasized the issue of the loss of a child. Writing this piece was a therapeutic activity for me, as I was getting over my son being near death just a while before. The shock still sits, and he is still sick. The setting is perhaps surprisingly vigorous for such a dolorous text, with insistent, pulsing rhythms driving leaping figurations toward a final ringing “Amen.”

Manuel De Falla

Born November 23, 1876; Cádiz, Spain

Died November 14, 1946; Alta Gracia, Argentina

Suite No. 2 from The Three-Cornered Hat (1917–19)

(Arranged by Geoffrey Boyd, 2022)

The Three-Cornered Hat concerns a village miller and his pretty wife. The Corregidor (mayor) is attracted to the miller’s wife and makes his advances. She tells her husband to watch as she spurns the old man’s attempts at love. The Corregidor chases her but becomes aware of the teasing intrigue between husband and wife, and departs. That evening the village festivities are interrupted by the local constabulary who have come to arrest the miller on a charge trumped up by the Corregidor to get him out of the way. The Corregidor appears as the miller is led away, but falls into the millstream as he is pursuing the girl. She runs off in search of her husband while the Corregidor removes his sodden clothes, including his three-cornered hat— a symbol of his office—hangs them on a chair outside the mill, and jumps into the absent girl’s bed to ward off a chill. Meanwhile, the miller has escaped and returned home. He sees the

Corregidor’s discarded clothes and believes himself betrayed by his wife. Vowing to get even, he exchanges his garments for those of the official, scribbles on the wall “The wife of the Corregidor is also very pretty,” and runs off in search of his conquest. The Corregidor emerges to find only the miller’s clothes. He puts them on just in time for the police, hunting their escaped prisoner, to arrest him by mistake. The miller’s wife returns, followed by the miller, and the two are happily reconciled.

Falla derived two orchestral suites from the complete score for The ThreeCornered Hat. They parallel the action of the ballet, but omit some of the connecting tissue. The Second Suite comprises The Neighbor’s Dance, The Miller’s Dance, and the energetic Final Dance

Michael Mulcahy Conductor

Chicago Symphony Orchestra trombonist Michael Mulcahy appears worldwide as a soloist, conductor, and teacher. He was appointed to the CSO by Sir Georg Solti in 1989, having been principal trombonist of the Tasmanian and Melbourne symphony orchestras and solo trombonist of the Cologne Radio Symphony Orchestra.

Mulcahy made his solo debut with the Orchestra under Daniel Barenboim in 2000 and subsequently performed as soloist under Pierre Boulez. In October 2016, he gave the world premiere of Carl Vine’s Five Hallucinations for trombone and orchestra, a joint commission of the Chicago Symphony and the Sydney Symphony Orchestra. In February 2018, he performed in the world premiere of Jennifer Higdon’s Low Brass Concerto, a CSO commission that the Orchestra took on its East Coast tour.

Mulcahy is the winner of several international competitions, including the Australian Broadcasting Corporation Instrumental Competition, the ARD International Music Competition in Munich, the Viotti International Competition in Italy, and the International Instrumental Competition in former East Germany.

He has been principal trombonist of Chicago’s Music of the Baroque and the Grand Teton Music Festival since 1992. Mulcahy is also principal trombonist of the Australian World Orchestra, having performed under conductors Alexander Briger, Zubin Mehta, Sir Simon Rattle, and Riccardo Muti. He was a founding member of the National Brass Ensemble in 2014.

Michael Mulcahy’s interest in conducting was sparked by an invitation from the West German Radio Orchestra to direct a concert of music by Arvo Pärt. He serves as director of the CSO Brass, conducts annually for the Grand Teton Music Festival, and makes guest appearances with the Sydney Symphony, Tasmanian Symphony, New World Symphony, and the Royal Danish Orchestra. He was a senior lecturer at the Canberra School of Music at the Australian National University and served as music director for National Music Camp in Australia.

Currently, Mulcahy leads the trombone studio at Northwestern University’s Bienen School of Music and is a visiting artist at the Australian National Academy of Music.

Born in Sydney, Australia, Michael Mulcahy began studying trombone with his father, Jack Mulcahy, and completed his studies with Baden McCarron of the Sydney Symphony and with Geoffrey Bailey at the State Conservatorium of New South Wales.

Civic Orchestra of Chicago

Founded in 1919 by Frederick Stock, second music director of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra (CSO), the Civic Orchestra of Chicago prepares emerging professional musicians for lives in music. Civic members participate in rigorous orchestral training, September through June each season, with the Robert Kohl and Clark Pellett Principal Conductor Ken-David Masur, musicians of the CSO, and some of today’s most luminary conductors including the CSO’s Zell Music Director Riccardo Muti.

The importance of the Civic Orchestra’s role in Greater Chicago is underscored by its commitment to present concerts of the highest quality at no charge to the public. In addition to the critically acclaimed live concerts at Symphony Center, Civic Orchestra performances can be heard locally on WFMT (98.7 FM).

Civic musicians also expand their creative, professional, and artistic boundaries and reach diverse audiences through educational performances at Chicago Public Schools and a series of chamber concerts at various locations throughout the city, including Chicago Park District field houses and the National Museum of Mexican Art.

To further expand its musician training, the Civic Orchestra launched the Civic Fellowship program in the

2013–14 season. Each year, ten to fifteen Civic members are designated as Civic Fellows and participate in intensive leadership training that is designed to build and diversify their creative and professional skills.

From 2010 to 2019, Yo-Yo Ma was a leading mentor to Civic musicians and staff in his role as CSO Judson and Joyce Green Creative Consultant, and the programs and initiatives he established are integral to the Civic Orchestra curriculum today. Civic Orchestra musicians develop as exceptional orchestral players and engaged artists, cultivating their ability to succeed in the rapidly evolving world of music in the twenty-first century.

The Civic Orchestra’s long history of presenting full orchestra performances free to the public includes annual concerts at the South Shore Cultural Center (in partnership with the South Shore Advisory Council) as well as numerous Chicago public schools. The Civic Orchestra is a signature program of the Negaunee Music Institute at the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, which offers a wide range of education and community programs that engage more than 200,000 people of diverse ages, incomes, and backgrounds each year, in Chicago and around the world.

For more on the Civic Orchestra of Chicago and its Principal Conductor Ken-David Masur, please visit cso.org/civic.

Civic Orchestra of Chicago Brass & Percussion 2023

Michael Mulcahy Conductor horns

Jacob Medina

Michael Stevens

Nelson Yovera Perez

Ryan Williamson

Sylvia Denecke trumpets

Michael Leavens

Ismael Cañizares Ortega

Joshua Harris

Isaac Hopkins

John Wagner+ Esteban Batallán*

+ Civic Orchestra alumni

** Civic Orchestra Fellow trombones

Felix Regalado

Evelyn Proffit

Hugo Saavedra Arciniegas** euphonium

Felix Regalado bass trombone

Alexander Mullins tubas

Nick Collins

Ben Poirot timpani

David Miller percussion

Thaddeus Chung

Charley Gillette

Jordan Berini librarian

Anna Thompson**

* Chicago Symphony Orchestra Principal Trumpet, The Adolph Herseth Principal Trumpet Chair, endowed by an anonymous benefactor