THE FLORIDA STATE UNIVERSITY COLLEGE OF MUSIC Presents
THE UNIVERSITY SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA Alexander Jiménez, Music Director and Conductor Guilherme Rodrigues, Graduate Associate Conductor featuring Benjamin Sung, Violin
Saturday, February 24, 2024 Seven-thirty in the Evening Ruby Diamond Concert Hall Live: wfsu.org/fsumusic
ng i t r o p p u S e Arts th
850-894-8700
www.beethovenandcompany.com 719 North Calhoun Street, Suite E Tallahassee, Florida 32303
Tom Buchanan, owner
PROGRAM The Seminole Overture (2024)
Eren Gümrükçüoğlu (b. 1982)
— World Premiere —
Guilherme Leal Rodrigues, conductor Violin Concerto in D Major, Op. 35 Moderato nobile Romanze Allegro assai vivace
Erich Wolfgang Korngold (1897–1957)
Benjamin Sung, violin INTERMISSION Symphonie fantastique (An episode in the life of an artist), H. 48 Rěveries-Passions. Allegro agitato e appassionato -Religiosamente Un bal. Valse. Allegro non troppo Scène aux champs. Adagio Marche au supplice. Allegretto non troppo Songe d’une nuit de sabbat. Larghetto-Allegro
Hector Berlioz (1803–1869)
Please refrain from talking, entering, or exiting while performers are playing. Food and drink are prohibited in all concert halls. Please turn off cell phones and all other electronic devices. Please refrain from putting feet on seats and seat backs. Children who become disruptive should be taken out of the performance hall so they do not disturb the musicians and other audience members.
ABOUT THE MUSIC DIRECTOR AND CONDUCTOR Alexander Jiménez serves as Professor of Conducting, Director of Orchestral Activities, and String Area Coordinator at the Florida State University College of Music. Prior to his appointment at FSU in 2000, Jiménez served on the faculties of San Francisco State University and Palm Beach Atlantic University. Under his direction, the FSU orchestral studies program has expanded and been recognized as one of the leading orchestral studies programs in the country. Dr. Jiménez has recorded on the Naxos, Neos, Canadian Broadcasting Ovation, and Mark labels. Deeply committed to music by living composers, Dr. Jiménez has had fruitful and long-term collaborations with such eminent composers as Ellen Taafe Zwilich and the late Ladisalv Kubík, as well as working with Anthony Iannaccone, Krzysztof Penderecki, Martin Bresnick, Zhou Long, Chen Yi, Harold Schiffman, Louis Andriessen, and Georg Friedrich Haas. The University Symphony Orchestra has appeared as a featured orchestra for the College Orchestra Directors National Conference and the American String Teachers Association National Conference, and the University Philharmonia has performed at the Southeast Conference of the Music Educators National Conference (now the National Association for Music Education). The national PBS broadcast of Zwilich’s Peanuts’ Gallery® featuring the University Symphony Orchestra was named outstanding performance of 2007 by the National Educational Television Association. Active as a guest conductor and clinician, Jiménez has conducted extensively in the U.S., Europe, and the Middle East, including with the Brno Philharmonic (Czech Republic) and the Israel Netanya Chamber Orchestra. In 2022, Dr. Jiménez led the Royal Scottish National Orchestra in a recording of works by Anthony Iannaccone. Deeply devoted to music education, he serves as international ambassador for the European Festival of Music for Young People in Belgium and serves as Festival Orchestra Director and Artistic Consultant for the Blue Lake Fine Arts Camp in Michigan. Dr. Jiménez has been the recipient of University Teaching Awards in 2006 and 2018, The Transformation Through Teaching Award, and the Guardian of the Flame Award which is given to an outstanding faculty mentor. Dr. Jiménez is a past president of the College Orchestra Directors Association and served as music director of the Tallahassee Youth Orchestras from 20002017.
ABOUT THE FACULTY ARTISTS Associate Professor of Violin at Florida State University, violinist Benjamin Sung is also a Faculty Artist and violin coordinator at the Brevard Music Center, and principal second violin of the Brevard Music Center Orchestra. Recent concert highlights include the 2018 Brevard Music Festival; a complete Beethoven cycle with pianist David Kalhous; an appearance with the FSU University Symphony Orchestra in Piazzolla’s Estaciones Portenas for the 2016 ASTA National Conference; and a TED talk for TEDx Fargo. In the 2019-2020 season, he had engagements to play the 24 Caprices by Paganini in Canada, Taiwan, Brazil, and throughout the United States; Sung has an upcoming new solo album featuring works by Sciarrino, Berio, Maderna, and Schnittke. Sung has performed as soloist with numerous orchestras, including the Camerata Romeu of Havana, Cuba, the Virtuosi of Festival Internacionale de Musica in Recife, Brazil, and the National Repertory Orchestra. He is equally in demand as a chamber musician, having shared the stage with great performers including pianist Monique Duphil, and cellists Antonio Meneses and Marcio Carneiro. He is a past winner of the Starling Award of the Eastman School of Music and the Violin Fellowship of the Montgomery Symphony, and an Aaron Copland Fund Recording Grant. An enthusiastic advocate of contemporary music, Sung has recorded the music of composers Steve Rouse and Marc Satterwhite for Centaur Records, has performed and taught for Studio 2021 at Seoul National University, and has worked with many of the greatest composers of this generation, including John Adams, Pierre Boulez, George Crumb, and Helmut Lachenmann. In 2012, he released an album of new American works entitled FluxFlummoxed on Albany Records, a recording hailed by Fanfare Magazine as “a brilliant performance of four superb works” with “impeccable intonation and tone production.” Sung holds the Bachelor’s degree from the Eastman School of Music, where he studied with Oleh Krysa, and Master’s and Doctorate degrees from the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music, from the studio of Nelli Shkolnikova. Sung also studied at the Professional Training Program at Carnegie Hall, the Lucerne Festival Academy, the New York String Seminar, and the Chamber Music Residency at The Banff Centre.
Eren Gümrükçüoğlu is a composer and improviser of acoustic/ electroacoustic music and a music technologist. His research explores the dynamics of interaction between electronics and live instruments, generative systems, the utilization of nonwestern elements in concert music, jazz improvisation, and genre divisions with an emphasis on listening practices. He has collaborated with leading ensembles and performers including the JACK Quartet, Mivos Quartet, Semiosis Quartet, Conrad Tao, Ensemble Suono Giallo, Quince Ensemble, Deviant Septet, yMusic Ensemble, New York Polyphony, Quince Ensemble, Istanbul State Symphony Orchestra, and Metropole Orkest among others. His music has been performed around the globe and featured in national and international conferences and festivals such as June in Buffalo, SICPP, ilSUONO Contemporary Music Week, Taproot New Music, ROCC Conference, and SCI. In addition to his academic work, he composed, arranged, performed, and recorded music for film and TV in Hollywood and in Turkey. His studies and years of professional experience in the global music industry span film scoring, jazz composition and improvisation, live performance/ touring, audio engineering, and all aspects of music production. Gümrükçüoğlu writes music that dwells at the intersection of diverse musical styles as a consequence of his wide-ranging experiences in contemporary classical, jazz, and Turkish folk music—bringing together listening practices of disparate genres and cultures. Electronics and improvisation are integral to his compositional process both in terms of generating ideas and exploring live performance possibilities. He refrains from creating a crass amalgam of genres but rather incorporates the idiosyncrasies, contours, shapes, rhythms and pacings of different styles into his music. His compositions evoke the sense of spontaneity and elasticity that are central to musical development in jazz, while at the same time maintaining a rigorous approach to managing musical form and texture that is typical of much contemporary concert music.
NOTES ON THE PROGRAM Gümrükçüoğlu: The Seminole Overture The Seminole Overture was written specifically for the USO to be featured during the 2024 Festival of the Creative Arts at Florida State University. This short symphonic work is scored for the large orchestra and opens with a quasifanfare-type intro by the brass ensemble. As the percussionists carry on with a groove that brings to mind the Marching Chiefs, the string section enters with a melody that gradually flourishes into a climax that brings the woodwinds to the forefront. This evolves into an uplifting and majestic tutti section which gives way to the coda. The coda contains an Easter egg for the audience where a ‘concealed’ rendition of the “war chant” can be heard. The overture ends with only three instruments left playing, cleansing the audience’s palate while setting the stage for the rest of the concert. – Gümrükçüoğlu Korngold: Violin Concerto in D Major Next time you watch a movie with a great orchestral score (think John Williams), you can thank Erich Wolfgang Korngold. Born in Austria in 1897, this child prodigy who impressed no less than the great Gustav Mahler and Richard Strauss, became what could be considered one of America’s great composers thanks to his greatly influential compositions for film during the early years of “talkies.” Films with sound debuted in 1929, a year during which Korngold was busy in Europe establishing himself as a highly regarded composer of opera, chamber music, ballet, and much more. The greatest names in music of that time – Richard Strauss, Artur Nikisch, Felix Weingartner Artur Schnabel, and more – were interested in Korngold’s work and actively performing them in concert venues throughout Europe. Soon, however, his professional trajectory would take an unexpected turn. In 1934, Max Reinhardt, a fellow Austrian who was in Hollywood as a film director, invited Korngold to the United States to adapt Mendelssohn’s music to a film version of A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Expecting this to be a one-time opportunity, Korngold left America, only to return one year later to compose original scores for Paramount and Warner Brothers, resulting in an exclusive contract with Warner Bros., the first of its kind for a composer. From this point, his music for film became foundational in the development of the Hollywood cinematic orchestral sound. He won Oscars for his work and wrote music for some of the most iconic films to come out of Hollywood during the 1930s and 40s, including Captain Blood (1935), Anthony Adverse (1936), The Adventures of Robinhood (with Errol Flynn in 1938), and The Sea Wolf (1941).
While working feverishly in the Hollywood film factory, the renowned violinist and friend of Korngold, Bronisław Huberman, took numerous opportunities to encourage Korngold to write a violin concerto. Korngold began sketching ideas in the late 30s, but by the time he finished the work in 1945, Huberman was well past his prime and unable to perform a work of such technical difficulty and scope. In to save the day was the great Jascha Heifitz, who lobbied Korngold to make it even more difficult. The first performance took place on February 15, 1947 with Heifitz and the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra under the direction of Vladimir Golschmann. Heifitz later made the first recording of the work. Born into an era of hyper romanticism in music, Korngold’s music, whether for the concert stage or the silver screen, was imbued with musical invention, exceptional orchestration, and deeply moving lyricism. The influences of Wagner, Strauss, and Mahler form a foundation from which he developed his own inimical style and that in itself formed the very foundation of the cinematic orchestra. The Violin Concerto borrows directly and unabashedly from his film scores in every movement. Yet, there is nothing derivative or cheap here. Korngold’s prodigious command of compositional technique takes these themes and turns them into a concerto worthy of those by the greatest 19th and early 20th century composers. The first movement, marked moderato nobile, opens with a sweeping and exceptionally noble gesture from the solo violin that is taken from Another Dawn (1935) and is followed in the second theme taken from Juarez (1939). This is a movement that is lush, expansive, and deeply moving. The second movement, Romanze, is as romantic as it gets. The quotation here from the film Anthony Adverse is less obvious, yet present throughout this movement of intense beauty and sensitivity (get your hanky ready…). The final movement is a romp based on music from The Prince and the Pauper that pushes the violinist to the edge. Korngold’s Violin Concerto is great music that is great fun! – Alexander Jiménez Berlioz: Symphonie fantastique 1830. Paris. Hector Berlioz, aged 26, is experiencing even more intense shocks to his psyche than is normally the case in the anything but placid life of the arch-Romantic composer. “I have just been plunged into an endless, insatiable passion,” he wrote to his friend Humbert Ferrand. “She is still in London, and yet I feel her near.” The “she” was Harriet Smithson, an Irish Shakespearean actress of reportedly modest professional endowments but considerable personal magnetism. Smithson, after a period of indifference, which worked its way up to mild curiosity, then qualified interest and presumably a stage well beyond, married her wild-eyed suitor in 1833. The union proved stormy and ultimately intolerable to both parties. (The fact that she never learned to speak more than minimal French and he never learned English may have caused some misunderstandings.)
Berlioz was initially, when still a Smithson observer rather than an intimate, “paralyzed by passion” (his words) for her. He was beginning “a great symphony” when the fit of passion overtook him and froze all creativity. Smithson’s arrival in Paris a few weeks later occasioned a thaw, and work began on the first version of the Symphonie fantastique, completed in April of 1830. The premiere had been scheduled, long before the work’s conclusion, to take place in May. But the score was still incomplete when the fatal date approached. Thus, the composer “worked in a frenzy” (again, his words), borrowing bits from his other scores and leaving in portions he had planned to revise later. Nerves were raw from the outset at the first rehearsal, which took place on a stage far too small to accommodate the sizable orchestra. Berlioz, never the most accommodating of colleagues, was especially difficult to deal with in his capacity as conductor. After a few rehearsals, all concerned decided to call it quits, and the notion of presenting the premiere of the Symphony was shelved. The delay, until the end of the same year, enabled Berlioz to do some polishing, and the “Episodes in the Life of an Artist,” as the score was originally called, made its debut on December 5. It proved a huge success, contrary to what we might expect with a work so eccentric, so forward-looking—and so well-publicized. Among the audience in the Great Hall of the Paris Conservatoire were Victor Hugo, Nicolò Paganini, Alexander Dumas (père), Heinrich Heine, and Smithson. In his “Fantastic Symphony in Five Parts,” a literal translation of the work’s final title, Berlioz tells a musical tale, with himself as the central character—creating not only a mood (as in Liszt’s symphonic poems), but states of mind and precise, physical situations. Nothing like it had been attempted on this scale before. Berlioz’s new concept of how far one could go in dramatic music without resorting to a vocal text once caused considerable polemicizing over whether such music was viable without reference to the “story.” Wagner’s great friend and champion Eduard Dannreuther took the negative tack: “The Symphonie fantastique, particularly its finale, is sheer nonsense when the hearer has no knowledge of the program.” Robert Schumann expressed a different point of view regarding Berlioz’s wild child. For Schumann, a too-intimate knowledge of the program prevented maximum enjoyment of the music: “When once the eye has been led to a certain point, the ear no longer judges independently.” If Berlioz is to have his way, the program must be read; therefore, an abbreviated version of the composer’s descriptive text is:
I. Reveries; Passions. The first movement is in two sections, a brief Adagio followed by a long Allegro. The subject is an artist gifted with a lively imagination. The theme of the beloved [the idée fixe, an obsessively recurring theme in flutes and violins] appears in the Allegro for the first time. The artist is subjected to floods of passion, tenderness, jealousy, fury, fear… II. A Ball. The hero is at a grand ball, but the tumult cannot distract him. “She” appears in oboe and flute among the whirling dancers. III. Scene in the Country. After great agitation, he finds hope and believes his feelings to be requited. In the country, he hears two herdsmen play a ranz des vaches [melody played to gather the scattered cattle]. This plunges him into a delicious reverie, and we hear again the idée fixe. He is again filled with doubt. Silence. IV. March to the Scaffold. He attempts to poison himself with opium but is instead subjected to a horrible dream: He has killed his beloved. He is to be executed, and, even worse, must witness his own execution. At the march’s end, she reappears—but her picture is obliterated by the final blow. V. Dream of a Witches’ Sabbath. He finds himself at a witches’ revel, surrounded by sorcerers and monsters. The melody of his beloved, which has thus far been noble and full of grace, is transformed into a drunkard’s song: It is the beloved coming to the revels, to assist at the funeral of her victim. She is no longer anything but a courtesan, worthy of participation in such an orgy. The ceremony begins. The bells toll. A choir [of brass instruments] chants the Dies irae, which is then parodied by the other [instrumental] choirs. The Dies irae mingles with the wild revelry at its height—and the vision comes to an end. – Herbert Glass
University Symphony Orchestra Personnel Alexander Jiménez, Music Director and Conductor Guilherme Leal Rodrigues, Graduate Associate Conductor Violin I MaryKatherine Whiteley‡ Jean-Luc Cataquet Gabriela da Silva Fogo Maria Mendez Rosalee Walsh Keat Zhen Cheong Barbara Santiago Tommaso Bruno Catherine Yara Masayoshi Arakawa Darrian Lee Stacey Sharpe Thomas Roggio Violin II Angel Andres* Anna Kirkland Alyssa Donall Joan Prokopowicz Michael Mesa Gabriel Salinas-Guzman Nicole Vega Harshul Mulpuru Hope Welsh Madelyne Garnot Viola Luiz Barrionuevo* Joshua Singletary Ahdi Horton Keara Henre Jeremy Hill Marina Akamatsu Caroline Bruns Abigail Felde Hunter Sanchez Margot Elder
Cello Marina Burguete-Diago* Mitchell George Emma Hoster Katie Jo Gelasco Angelese Pepper Luke Ponko Thu Vo Liam Sabo
English Horn Andrew Swift Elijah Barrios
Trombone Justin Hamann* Connor Altagen
Clarinet Connor Croasmun* Anne Glerum* Andrew Prawat* Travis Irizarry
Bass Trombone Grant Keel
Bass Maximilian Levesque* Alejandro Bermudez Megan Hipp Alex Lunday Kent Rivera Christian Maldonado
Bass Clarinet Dave Scott
Harp Isabelle Scott* Eva Crook Flute Emma Cranford* Lindsey Kovach* Allison Acevedo Kaitlyn Calcagino Cameron McGill Oboe Luis Gallo* Nic Kanipe* Andrew Swift Elijah Barrios
E-flat Clarinet Dave Scott Bassoon Cailin McGarry* Josie Whiteis* Carson Long Ryder Kaya
Tuba Chris Bloom* Mike Anderson Timpani and Percussion Landon Holladay* Kylan Bigby Jackson Kowalczyk Miranda Hughes Will Vasquez Celesta Mikayla Rogers
Contrabassoon Ryder Kaya
Orchestra Manager Heather Simpson
Horn Brianna Nay* Leslie Bell* Thomas Langston Jordan Perkins
Orchestra Stage Manager Alejandro Bermudez
Trumpet Vance Garven* Benjamin Dubbert* Vito Bell* Schelvin Robinson
Orchestra Librarians Will Whitehead Guilherme Rodrigues Administrative Assistant Marina Akamatsu
‡ Concertmaster * Principal
2023–2024 CONCERT SEASON FALL November 19, 2023 Elijah Felix Mendelssohn
UNITY 17 January 28, 2024 Sounds of Cinema Celebrating Tallahassee’s Bicentennial
SPRING April 28, 2024 Lord Nelson Mass Joseph Haydn
TICKETS: TCCHORUS.ORG OR 850-597-0603 All performances in Ruby Diamond Concert Hall, Florida State University Funded in part by
UNIVERSITY MUSICAL ASSOCIATES 2023-2024 Dean’s Circle Les and Ruth Ruggles Akers Richard Dusenbury and Kathi Jaschke CarolAline Flaumenhaft
Jim and Betty Ann Rodgers Tate and Jo Todd
Gold Circle Drs. Charles and Sharon Aronovitch Margaret and Russ Dancy Louie and Avon Doll Patrick and Kathy Dunnigan Kevin and Suzanne Fenton * Emory and Dorothy Johnson Albert and Darlene Oosterhof
Bob Parker Todd and Kelin Queen Karen and Francis C. Skilling * Paula and Bill Smith David and Jane Watson Bret Whissel Sustainer
Stan Barnes Marty Beech Kathryn M. Beggs Greg and Karen Boebinger Beverley Booth * Karen Bradley Scott A. Brock Donna Callaway Brian Causseaux and W. David Young Pete and Bonnie Chamlis James Clendinen Jody and Nancy Coogle Jim and Sandy Dafoe Patrice Dawson Floyd Deterding and Kelley Lang Diane Dowling and Jack Dowling Segundo J. Fernandez Susan and Jack Fiorito Joy and James Frank William Fredrickson and Suzanne Rita Byrnes William J. Gladwin, Jr. Mario Gonzalez and Pierce Withers Myron and Judy Hayden
* Marc J. and Kathryn S. Hebda Katherine Henricks Dottie and John Hinkle Todd S. Hinkle Holly Hohmeister Karolyn and Ed Holmes Alexander and Dawn Jiménez Dr. Gregory and Dr. Margo Jones William and DeLaura Jones Martin Kavka and Tip Tomberlin Howard Kessler and Anne Van Meter Michael Killoren and Randy Nolan Dennis G. King, Esq. Robert and Karen Large Dr. Annelise Leysieffer Nancy and Jeff Lickson Linda and Bob Lovins Victoria Martinez Kay and Ken Mayo Robert and Patty McDonald Duane and Marge Meeter Dewitt Miller, III Walter and Marian Moore Ann W. Parramore
Sustainer cont’d Robert and Caryl Pierce * David and Joanne Rasmussen Stephen and Elizabeth Richardson * Ken and J.R. Saginario Jonathan Jackson and Greg Springer Nell and Marshall Stranburg
William and Ma’Su Sweeney Margaret Van Every and Joe Lama * Alison R. Voorhees John and Jeanie Wood Kathy D. Wright
Patron Joyce Andrews Mary S. Bert Malcolm Craig Rochelle M. Davis William H. Davis Eunice Filar Judith Flanigan John S. and Linda Fleming L. Kathryn Funchess Debbie Gibson Ruth Godfrey-Sigler Bryan and Nancy Goff Harvey and Judy Goldman Michael Hanawalt * William and Julie Hatfield Albert Henry Jerry and Bobbi Hill Madeleine Hirsiger-Carr Jane A. Hudson Richard and Linda Hyson Barbara James Emily Jamieson Sally and Dr. Link Jarrett Ms. Judith H. Jolly Mr. and Mrs. William A. Kaempfer Dr. Alan R. Kagan Arline Kern
* Jonathan Klepper and Jimmy Cole Frances Kratt John and Silky Labie Donna Legare Mari-Jo Lewis-Wilkinson Ann and Don Morrow Dr. William C. Murray Sandra Palmer Ann E. Parker Marjorie J. Portnoi Karalee Poschman David Reed Edward Reid Mark E. Renwick John and Carol Ryor Jill Sandler Paula S. Saunders Scott Scearce Jeanette Sickel Alice C. Spirakis George Sweat Marjorie Turnbull Ed Valla Paul van der Mark Sylvia B. Walford Geoffrey and Simone Watts Jeff Wright
Associate Jayme Agee Patricia C. Applegate Michael Buchler and Nancy Rogers Mary and David Coburn Adele Cunningham Pamala J. Doffek Clifford Dudley The Fennema Family Gene and Deborah Glotzbach Barbara Hamby and David Kirby Donna H. Heald Carla Connors and Timothy Hoekman Nicole and Kael Johnson Steve Kelly Dean Kindley
Pell and Angela Kornegay Joseph Kraus Susan S. Lampman Debora Lee Jane LeGette Chantal Littleton Kathleen and Lealand McCharen Moncrief Flom Family In Memory of Mrs. Dorothy S. Roberts Dr. Luis R. Rosas Sperandio Sanford A. Safron Kelley Stam Mr. and Mrs. Charles Tuten Karen Wensing Teresa White
Lifetime Members Willa Almlof Florence Helen Ashby Mrs. Reubin Askew * Tom and Cathy Bishop Nancy Bivins Ramona D. Bowman André and Eleanor Connan Janis and Russell Courson * J.W. Richard and Tina Davis Ginny Densmore Nancy Smith Fichter and Robert W. Fichter Carole D. Fiore Patricia J. Flowers Jane E. Hughes Hilda Hunter Julio Jiménez Kirby W. and Margaret-Ray Kemper
Patsy Kickliter Anthony M. and Mallen E. Komlyn Fred Kreimer Beverly Locke-Ewald Cliff and Mary Madsen Ralph and Sue Mancuso Meredith and Elsa L. McKinney Ermine M. Owenby Mike and Judy Pate Jane Quinton Laura and Sam Rogers, Jr. Dr. Louis St. Petery Sharon Stone Donna Cay Tharpe Brig. Gen. and Mrs. William B. Webb Rick and Joan West John L. and Linda M. Williams
Corporate Sponsors Beethoven & Company
MusicMasters Business Sponsors
WFSU Public Broadcast Center *University Musical Associates Executive Committee
The University Musical Associates is the community support organization for the FSU College of Music. The primary purposes of the group are to develop audiences for College of Music performances, to assist outstanding students in enriching their musical education and careers, and to support quality education and cultural activities for the Tallahassee community. If you would like information about joining the University Musical Associates, please contact Kim Shively, Director of Special Programs, at kshively@fsu.edu or 850-644-4744.
The Florida State University provides accommodations for persons with disabilities. Please notify the College of Music at 850-644-3424 at least five business days prior to a musical event if accommodation for disability or publication in alternative format is needed.