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THIS PERFORMANCE IS BROUGHT TO YOU BY
THIS PERFORMANCE IS BROUGHT TO YOU BY
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On Today’s Program DUKAS Fanfare to La péri V. COLEMAN Red Clay and Mississippi Delta T. SUSATO/J. IVESON Susato Suite I. La Mourisque II. Bransle Quatre Bransles: Allegro III. Ronde: Allegro IV. Basse Danse Bergeret: Allegro non troppo V. Ronde, Mon Amy: Andante (Cantabile) VI. Pavanne Battaille: Grandioso R. STRAUSS Serenade in E-flat major for Winds, Opus 7 PROKOFIEV/A. TARKMANN Suite from Romeo and Juliet, Opus 64 [excerpts] Morning Dance Montagues and Capulets: Andante PIAZZOLLA/S. VERHELST Suite from Maria de Buenos Aires
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DUKAS FA N FA R E T O L A P É R I
PAUL DUKAS COMPOSER (1865–1935) • Not quite reaching the level of popularity enjoyed by his Sorcerer’s Apprentice, Dukas’s La péri ballet is considered by many to be among his most mature and skilled pieces. The overture, spotlighting the brass section, is often played independently of the full ballet.
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V. COLEMAN R E D C L AY A N D M I S S I S S I P P I D E LTA
VALERIE COLEMAN COMPOSER • This work is a play on a traditional musical scherzo married with the composer’s experience of life in the South. You’ll hear classical orchestra techniques with the distinctive charm of Southern blues added. • Stated as her inspiration by the composer: “From the juke joints and casino boats that line the Mississippi River, to the skin tone of kinfolk in the area: a dark skin that looks like it came directly from the red clay.” • In addition to composing, Coleman is also a flautist and founder of Imani Winds. She was named Performance Today’s 2020 Classical Woman of the Year and is among The Washington Post’s list of Top 35 Women Composers.
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T. SUSATO/J. IVESON S U S AT O S U I T E
TIELMAN SUSATO COMPOSER (1500s–1561) • Believed to be born sometime in the 1510s in the Netherlands, Susato is credited with founding the first music publishing house that utilized the new advent of moveable type. He was also an accomplished composer in his own right, specializing in both religious vocal works as well as instrumental music that is still performed today. • This piece, which is often arranged for different groupings of instruments, features nice contrasts between brilliant fortes and smooth, lyrical passages with changing articulations and dynamics throughout. • This arrangement features the Symphony’s brass section.
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R. STRAUSS S E R E N A D E I N E - F L AT M A J O R F O R WINDS, OPUS 7
RICHARD STRAUSS COMPOSER (1864–1949) • Composed when he was only 17 in 1881, Strauss’s Serenade in E-flat major was published exactly 100 years after Mozart’s Serenade No. 11 in E-flat. While he described this piece as “nothing more than a respectable work of a music student,” critics correctly prophesied that he would surely have a promising and prolific career to come.
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PROKOFIEV/A. TARKMANN S U I T E F R O M R O M E O A N D J U L I E T, O P U S 64 [EXCERPTS]
SERGEI PROKOFIEV COMPOSER (1891–1953) • Originally written as a full staged ballet in 1935, Prokofiev reissued the work into three orchestral suites and a solo piano piece. • The Montagues and Capulets, which opens the Second Suite, is also known as the Dance of the Knights. The themes identified in this movement are varied throughout the full work to convey the deaths of several characters.
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PIAZZOLLA/S. VERHELST SUITE FROM MARIA DE BUENOS AIRES
ASTOR PIAZZOLLA COMPOSER (1921–1992) • Conceived as a surrealist opera ballet—substituting tango for classical music—this piece tells the story of the forlorn and destitute Maria, who is entranced by the seductive music of Buenos Aires, living out her life (and afterlife) among its many dark and alluring street corners. • Piazzolla was instrumental in evolving traditional Argentine tango into a stylized “nuevo tango”. This new branch incorporated elements of jazz and classical music with tango’s rhythmic trademarks.
ARTIST BIOS YUE BAO CONDUCTOR TING TSUNG AND WEI FONG CHAO FOUNDATION CONDUCTING FELLOW Conductor Yue Bao serves as conducting fellow of the Houston Symphony. In May 2019, she completed a two-year tenure as the Rita E. Hauser Conducting Fellow at the Curtis Institute of Music, closely working with Maestro Nézet-Séguin during her studies in Philadelphia. At Curtis, she was active as both a conductor and assistant, working with Michael Tilson Thomas, Osmo Vänskä, Gilbert Varga, Giancarlo Guerrero, and Miguel Harth-Bedoya. Yue was the Bruno Walter Memorial Foundation Conducting Fellow at the Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary Music in 2019. In 2018, she served as the David Effron Conducting Fellow at the Chautauqua Music Festival, where her concerts with the Festival Orchestra received major accolades from audiences and musicians. Prior to her time at Curtis, in 2015, she served as a conducting fellow at the Eastern Music Festival under Gerard Schwarz. She has worked extensively in the United States and abroad. She served as an assistant for the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra under JoAnn Falletta and David Lockington (2015–17), making her conducting debut with Buffalo in 2016. Yue has also assisted Vänskä at the Minnesota Orchestra and Varga at the St. Louis Symphony. Recent appearances include the Shanghai Opera Symphony Orchestra, the Xiamen Philharmonic Orchestra, and the New Symphony Orchestra. Equally at home with both symphonic and operatic repertoire, her credits include Tchaikovsky’s Eugene Onegin, Bizet’s Carmen, Kurt Weill’s Mahagonny: Ein Songspiel, and Gian Carlo Menotti’s The Medium. She is also active as a pianist, recently playing for a production of Les contes d’Hoffmann by Jacques Offenbach at the National Centre for the Performing Arts. Along with her Artist Diploma from The Curtis Institute of Music, she holds Bachelor of Music degrees in orchestral conducting and collaborative piano from the Shanghai Conservatory of Music, and a Master of Music degree in orchestral conducting from the Mannes School of Music.
