Belmont University School of Music
THURSDAY, OCTOBER 10, 2024 7:30 PM
MCAFEE CONCERT HALL
Belmont University School of Music presents
Something for Everyone
Belmont University Symphony Orchestra
Dr. Christopher Fashun, conductor
Overture to La clemenza di Tito
Symphony No. 2 in C minor, op. 17 (“Little Russian”)
15-Minute Intermission
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791)
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky (1840-1893)
Kauyumari
Gabriela Ortiz (b. 1964)
Melody Myroslav Skoryk (1938-2020)
Mothership
Tracy Silverman*, violin
Paulo Oliveira*, guitar
*School of Music Faculty
Mason Bates (b. 1977)
Program Notes
Overture to La clemenza di Tito - As political unrest between Russia, France, and the Holy Roman Empire continued to rise in 1791, Mozart was fastidiously composing three of his greatest works in the last year of his life – The Magic Flute, the Requiem, and the Clarinet Concerto. Although Mozart had never been a favorite of the Imperial Court in Austria, he was commissioned to write a coronation opera for Leopold II where he was to be crowned King of Bohemia. The work was to be an opera seria (the noble and serious genre of eighteenth century opera), which was a regression to the en vogue opera buffa (comic opera) style that Mozart had brought to unrivaled prominence. Mozart accepted the commission mostly due to the sizable paycheck-twice the going rate in Vienna. Due to an abbreviated timeline, Mozart hastily and masterfully composed the opera in less than two weeks. Although the premiere (hours after the coronation) was warmly received, it rivaled Don Giovanni in popularity thirty years following Mozart’s death and was his first opera to be performed in London.
The overture itself was still unwritten the night before the premiere. As the story goes, Mozart locked himself in his room, sat down at the clavier, and composed the overture all night and into the morning. His copyist was waiting outside the door and Mozart, when he had completed the Overture, handed the full score to the copyist with explicit instructions to not smear the wet ink. As the opera overture developed throughout Mozart’s lifetime, it had become standard practice to incorporate themes heard in the opera into the overture. This overture resembles those from earlier in Mozart’s life, which does not use themes from the opera and primarily function as an attentiongetting device. Employing the use of sonata form with a harmonically adventurous development section, Mozart’s genius is on display even in such a brief work. He cleverly plays with the expectations of his audience by inserting a false recapitulation by presenting the secondary theme first to return to the opening topoi of the fanfare heard in the opening bars of the overture. This leads back to the primary theme and to a lively and energetic conclusion.
Program notes by Dr. Christopher Fashun, School of Music Faculty
Symphony No. 2 in C minor, op. 17 (“Little Russian”)
Tchaikovsky’s music, which does not appear specifically Russian to everybody, is often more profoundly Russian than music which has long since been awarded the facile label of Muscovite picturesqueness. This music is quite as Russian as Pushkin’s verse or Glinka’s song. While not specifically cultivating in his art the “soul of the Russian peasant,” Tchaikovsky drew unconsciously from the true, popular sources of our race
-Igor Stravinsky in a letter to Diaghilev (1921)
Whether or not Stravinsky was aware of Tchaikovsky’s Ukrainian heritage, his quote speaks to the depth of Tchaikovsky’s nationalism that represented the various peoples living under Russian rule during the nineteenth-century. Prior to the 20th-century, the people, language and culture of this region were referred to as “Little Russia”. Following the fall of the Russian Empire in 1917, the label took on a derogatory connotation and its meaning was associated with Ukrainians with little or no national consciousness.
Symphony No. 2 in C minor, op. 17 was nicknamed the “Little Russian” by fellow musician and music critic Nicolay Kashkin because of Tchaikovsky’s use of three Ukrainian folk songs. The opening horn theme of the first movement introduction is a folk song entitled “Down by Mother
Volga” and is one of two themes used in the movement. The second theme, introduced in the Allegro vivo by the winds, would be used later by Rimsky-Korsakov in his Russian Easter Overture The second movement is a bridal march taken from Tchaikovsky’s unpublished opera Undine. It is a true rondo (ABACABA) and the C section uses the folk song “Spin, O My Spinner.” Although no folk song is used, the third movement is a fiery scherzo and trio that has a written out da capo and coda. Following a grandiose fanfare, the final movement is a theme and variations set in a macro sonata form and is based on the folk tune “The Crane.” A lyrical second theme is introduced in the violins and is incorporated into subsequent variations. The movement concludes with an exhilarating coda.
Tchaikovsky exhibits his gift of melody, his inventiveness and colorful orchestration that displays the influences of nineteenth-century harmonic practices and characteristics as well textbook examples of eighteenth-century forms (sonata, rondo, scherzo and trio, theme and variations). Within each movement, symmetrically balanced phrasing is omnipresent as is Tchaikovsky’s characteristic trait of juxtaposing groups of instruments (winds and strings) or the voicing of instruments with similar tessituras (high, medium, low).
Program notes by Dr. Christopher Fashun, School of Music Faculty
Kauyumari - Among the Huichol people of Mexico, Kauyumari means "blue deer." The blue deer represents a spiritual guide, one that is transformed through an extended pilgrimage into a hallucinogenic cactus called peyote. It allows the Huichol to communicate with their ancestors, do their bidding, and take on their role as guardians of the planet. Each year, these Native Mexicans embark on a symbolic journey to "hunt" the blue deer, making offerings in gratitude for having been granted access to the invisible world, through which they also are able to heal the wounds of the soul.
When I received the commission from the Los Angeles Philharmonic to compose a piece that would reflect on our return to the stage following the pandemic, I immediately thought of the blue deer and its power to enter the world of the intangible as akin to a celebration of the reopening of live music. Specifically, I thought of a Huichol melody sung by the De La Cruz family dedicated to recording ancestral folklore that I used for the final movement of my piece, Altar de Muertos (Altar of the Dead), commissioned by the Kronos String Quartet in 1997.
I used this material within the orchestral context and elaborated on the construction and progressive development of the melody and its accompaniment in such a way that it would symbolize the blue deer. This in turn was transformed into an orchestral texture which gradually evolves into a complex rhythm pattern, to such a degree that the melody itself becomes unrecognizable (the imaginary effect of peyote and our awareness of the invisible realm), giving rise to a choral wind section while maintaining an incisive rhythmic accompaniment as a form of reassurance that the world will naturally follow its course.
While composing this piece, I noted once again how music has the power to grant us access to the intangible; healing our wounds and binding us to what can only be expressed through sound. Although life is filled with interruptions, Kauyumari is a comprehension and celebration of the fact that each of these rifts is also a new beginning.
Program notes by Gabriela Ortiz, Compsoer
Melody - The music of Ukranian composer Myroslav Skoryk spans more than six decades with a compositional output that includes works for orchestra, chorus, ballet, and opera; jazz and popular
music; and scores for more than forty films. Born in Lviv, he began his musical studies at the Lviv Music School for two years when he and his parents were deported to Siberia for eight years. Upon their return in 1955, he entered the Lviv Conservatory followed by four years of study in a doctoral program at the Moscow Conservatory where he studied with Kabalevsky. He taught composition and theory at the Lviv and Kyiv Conservatories and served as the Artistic Director of the National Opera of Ukraine. By the age of thirty, he had become one of the most influential Ukrainian professors of composition and made significant contributions to the musical culture of Ukraine.
Although Skoryk’s compositions tend to be complex and incorporate influences from folk, classivcal, jazz, popular, film music, and avant garde, Melody is beautifully simple. Written for the 1982 film High Mountain Pass, Skoryk stated that he wanted the music to convey an understanding of tragedy that cannot be expressed in words. Melody has since become one of Ukraine’s spiritual anthems, and we offer our performance in support of the Ukrainian people.
Program notes by Dr. Christopher Fashun, School of Music Faculty
Mothership - Named the most-performed composer of his generation and the 2018 Composer of the Year by Musical America, Mason Bates served as the first composer-in-residence of the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. Championed by legendary conductors such as Riccardo Muti, Michael Tilson Thomas, and Leonard Slatkin, his symphonic music is the first to receive widespread acceptance for its unique integration of electronic sounds, and his opera, The (R)evolution of Steve Jobs was hailed as one of the best-selling productions in the history of Santa Fe Opera. As both a DJ and a curator, he has become a visible advocate for bringing new music to new spaces, whether through institutional partnerships such as his residency with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, or through his club/classical project Mercury Soul, which transforms spaces ranging from commercial clubs to Frank Gehry-designed concert halls into exciting, hybrid musical events drawing large crowds. In awarding Bates the Heinz Medal, Teresa Heinz remarked that “his music has moved the orchestra into the digital age and dissolved the boundaries of classical music.”
The piece follows the form of a scherzo with double trio (as found in, for example, the Schumann Symphony No. 2). Symphonic scherzos historically play with dance rhythms in a high-energy and appealing manner, with the ‘trio’ sections temporarily exploring new rhythmic areas. Mothership shares a formal connection with the symphonic scherzo but is brought to life by thrilling sounds of the Twenty-first Century the rhythms of modern-day techno in place of waltz rhythms. ~Mason Bates
Program notes by Dr. Christopher Fashun, School of Music Faculty
Artist Biographies
Lauded by BBC Radio as “the greatest living exponent of the electric violin,” Tracy Silverman’s groundbreaking work with the six-string electric violin defies musical boundaries. The world’s foremost concert electric violinist, Silverman was named one of one hundred distinguished alumni by The Juilliard School. Formerly first violinist with the innovative Turtle Island String Quartet, Silverman has contributed significantly to the development and repertoire of the six-string electric violin and the non-classical stylistic approach he calls “twenty-first century violin playing,” inspiring several major composers to write concertos specifically for him, including Pulitzer winner John Adams’ “The Dharma at Big Sur,” premiered with the Los Angeles Philharmonic and
recorded with the BBC Symphony (Nonesuch Records); legendary “Father of Minimalism” Terry Riley’s electric violin concerto, “The Palmian Chord Ryddle,” premiered and recorded with the Nashville Symphony in Carnegie Hall in 2012 (Naxos Records); Kenji Bunch’s “Embrace” concerto in 2013.
The most recent of Silverman’s many CD’s, Between the Kiss and the Chaos (Delos/Naxos Records) features the celebrated Calder Quartet collaborating on Silverman’s 2nd electric violin concerto. Silverman played an NPR Tiny Desk Concert in 2014 and has appeared on national TV and radio programs including A Prairie Home Companion, NPR’s Performance Today and a profile on CBS News Sunday Morning The Chicago Tribune’s John von Rhein hailed Silverman’s “blazing virtuosity” and The New York Times’ Anthony Tommasini admired his “fleet agility and tangy expressivity.” “Inspiring. Silverman is in a class of his own.” – Mark Swed of the LA Times.
A long-standing advocate for music education and frequent clinician, Silverman was a protégé of the legendary violin pedagogue Ivan Galamian and he also studied chamber music with Sam Rhodes of the Juilliard Quartet and Lewis Kaplan of the Aeolian Chamber Players. “String playing must reflect our popular musical culture or risk becoming old-fashioned and irrelevant,” says Silverman who is finishing work on “Strum Bowing,” his instructional method already widely used throughout the world.
From Sao Paulo to Vienna, Carnegie Hall to the Hollywood Bowl, Silverman tours internationally as a soloist with orchestras, with his one-man performances, and as a collaborator with many other artists and chamber ensembles, including his duo with five-time Grammy winner Roy “Futureman” Wooten.
Bio courtesy of Tracy Silverman, School of Music Faculty
Dr. Paulo Oliveira is an active soloist, chamber musician, arranger, and educator who is equally at ease in the classical, jazz, and commercial worlds. In 2017 he joined the guitar faculty at Belmont University, teaching applied guitar, group seminars, coaching ensembles, and performing with faculty ensembles. A native of São Paulo, Brazil, Oliveira has taught and performed in South America, Europe, and across the United States. Oliveira has won awards in competitions both in Brazil and the United States, including the Villa-Lobos Conservatory, Bruce Ekstrand Memorial Competition, Emerging Artists-Missouri, Souza Lima Conservatory, and Middle Tennessee State University Competition. He has been awarded full scholarships to attend prestigious international festivals, including the Aspen Music Festival and Campos do Jordão Winter Festival.
Oliveira has appeared with Missouri Symphony’s Hot Summer Nights Pops Series. With the University of Missouri Concert Jazz Band, he performed and recorded with renowned musicians, including Christian McBride, Jimmy Greene, John Clayton, Randy Brecker, Sean Jones, and Mike Manieri.
An avid chamber musician, he formed the Oliveira-Willett Duo with oboist Dan Willett in 2012. Together they have performed and taught across the United States, Brazil, and France. The Duo’s first record "Two Hemispheres" features original arrangements of works by American and Brazilian composers, including works by Oliveira himself. The repertoire exemplifies contrasts and pairings intrinsic to the Duo: two generations, two styles, two countries, two cultures-two hemispheres. With Belmont University faculty member and saxophonist Dr. Alex Graham, Oliveira started a project where they perform original compositions and arrangements for guitar and soprano saxophone. The duo recently performed at the prestigious North American Saxophone Alliance Conference.
Bio courtesy of Dr. Paulo Oliveira, School of Music Faculty
Dr. Christopher H. Fashun, Director of Orchestras at Belmont University School of Music, is a versatile conductor, performer, and music educator. Known for his ability to conduct and perform across classical, popular, and folkloric styles, he has worked with Broadway star Doug LaBrecque, beatboxing saxophonist Derek Brown, bluegrass mandolinist Nate Roberts, tap dancer Heather Cornell, Brazilian group Choro das 3, and recorded with jazz artists Jordan VanHemert, Rodney Whitaker, and Lisa Sung on Navona Records. A champion of new music, Fashun has commissioned works from composers Texu Kim, Evan Williams, Andrew Maxfield, Choro das 3, Micheal Udow, Egemen Kesikli, and Christopher Theofanidis. Other notable conducting engagements include the Holland Symphony Orchestra, the Elkhart Symphony Orchestra, the La Porte County Symphony Orchestra, and the St. Ambrose University Community Symphony Orchestra. Fashun has served as the Music Director/Conductor for the Elkhart Youth Honors Orchestra and the Holland Area Youth Orchestra and conducted the Iowa All-State Symphony String Orchestra, Midwest Mennonite Festival Orchestra and Concert Band, and several AllCounty Festivals. In January 2025, he will be conducting the 2025 Oregon All-State High School Orchestra.
A distinguished recipient of a 2019 Fulbright Award in the U.S. Scholar Program, Fashun lived in Salvador da Bahia, Brazil researching Afro-Brazilian music and culture. His project title, “The Dissemination of Afro-Brazilian Music in Salvador da Bahia” explored the cultural, racial, religious, and musical milieu that contribute to the shared musical identity of Afro-Brazilians and, by extension, all of Brazil. His research brings more awareness to the various ways music is taught and disseminated within Brazilian culture. As an application of this research, Fashun founded the Holland Samba School, an intergenerational community group that teaches the culture and drumming styles of Brazil.
Central to his mission as an award-winning guest conductor, clinician, and performer, Fashun seeks to create community through the joy of music. Fashun has presented sessions at the national NAfME and state music education conferences in Florida, Wisconsin, Michigan, Indiana, Minnesota, and Oregon.
An accomplished percussionist and violist, he brings more than two decades of orchestral and chamber music experience and has enjoyed success in both areas as a soloist by winning three concerto competitions, one on viola and two on marimba. As a percussionist, he has toured and performed in Brazil, Thailand, Northern Ireland, Mexico, and throughout the United States.
When he’s not making music, he is either cycling or paddle boarding, and enjoying the great outdoors with his wife and daughter.
Bio courtesy of Dr. Christopher Fashun, School of Music Faculty
First Violin
Dani Alexander, concertmaster
Luke Baxley, assistant principal
Rocco Greco
Tessa Dalton
Heather Sherman
Nathaniel Eulentrop
Madlyn Anderson
Kinsey Overdeer
Yana Batazhan
Kay Deitrich
Florence Schaumann
Emma Buckner
Sam Lock
Second Violin
Kara Schlenk, principal
Jade LaGore
Kimmie Rauscher
Cara Thomas
Macahila Hinnenkamp
Hannah Adams
Sam Lehe
Zachary Hardin
Ben Greene
Shelby Fuller
Natalie Piedra
Nadia Foote
Viola
Bella Kinard, principal
George Graefen
Daniel Olopade
Mackenzie Combs
Kate Borosky
Karissa Szarek
Rachel Thomas
Personnel
Cello
Grant Brown, principal
Madelyn Duncan
Graham DeHaan
JéNai O’Connor
Angie Jackson
Ingrid Bakeman
Hannah Silverman
Owen Siller
Sarah Brewer
Davis Arens
EJ Carson
Bass
Cameron Bertolet, principal
Ari Stoker
Will Wirth
Claire Walker
Micah Lundberg
Carter Ferris
Carter Bohman
Flute
Jake King, principal
Brendan Wilson
Hannah Steele
Oboe
Lily Chantler, principal
William Fedack
Briana Crowder
English Horn
William Fedack
Eb Clarinet
Dillon Wright
Clarinet
McKensey Malin, principal
Tommy Steele
Dillon Wright
Bass Clarinet
Dillon Wright
Bassoon
Harrison Sampson, principal
Emily Okamura
Horn
Jacob Andrews, principal
Grace Helton
Joseph Assiryani
Holden Cessna
Trumpet
James Ownby, principal
Biruke Woldeyohannes
Luke Woody
Duncan Blackstock
Trombone
Joshua Walz, principal
Luke Myers
Brian Kling
Tuba
Hudson Butler
Harp
Audrey Smith
Aliyah Wenneker
Piano
Aliyah Wenneker
Digital Audio Workstation (DAW)
Cooper Agresta
Percussion
Matthew Love, principal
Gramm Raedeke
Miriam Marks
Madelynn Miller
Joshua Wingard
Upcoming Concerts and Events
Bass & Rock Ensemble
Thursday, October 17, 7:30 p.m.
Massey Concert Hall
For more information on upcoming concerts and events, please visit www.belmont.edu/cmpa or “like” Belmont University School of Music on Facebook.
