02.24.2019 ENS Irv Cohen

Irving H. Cohen Memorial and Concerto Concert, West Chester University Symphony Orchestra Joseph Caminiti, Music Director Sunday, February 24, 2019 Madeleine Wing Adler Theatre Performing Arts Center 3:00 PM

PROGRAM Boléro ......................................................................................................... Maurice Ravel (1875–1937) Vainement, ma bien aimée ....................................................................... Edouard Lalo (1823–1892) Connor Riley, vocalist Cello Concerto No. 1 In E-flat, Mvt. 1 .....................................Dmitri Shostakovich (1906–1975) I. Allegretto Hyewon Jo, cellist Intermission Overture in C ..................................................................Fanny [Mendelssohn] Hensel (1805–1847) Symphony in D Major (No. 104)................................................ Franz Joseph Haydn (1732–1809) I. Adagio-Allegro II. Andante III. Menuetto and Trio: Allegro IV. Finale: Spiritoso

Enjoy the pleasure of silencing your electronic devices!

29th ANNUAL MEMORIAL CONCERT

Irving H. Cohen 1925–1989 Dr. Irving H. Cohen received his B.A., M.A. and Ph.D. degrees from New York University. After many years teaching music in the New York City area, he came to West Chester University in 1969 as professor of music in the Department of Music History and simultaneously taught double bass and tuba students through the Department of Instrumental Music (now the Department of Applied Music).

Dr. Cohen served as both chair and member of many University committees, as well as on the Faculty Senate. He was acting director of the School of Music from 1982 to 1983. He loved West Chester University and did all in his power to enhance and enrich it.

In addition, Dr. Cohen was visiting professor of Music at Gratz College in Philadelphia and Vice President of the National Jewish Music Council. He was a member of many professional organizations, including the American Musicological Society, the Ethno-Musicological Society, the Association of Jewish Musicians, and the Guild of Temple Organists. He was a recipient of the Legion of Honor Award of the Chapel of the Four Chaplains.

He lived an exemplary life of goodness, integrity, concern, and care for others, mingled with intellectual brilliance and scholarly endeavors. In his kind, gentle manner he influenced the lives of many, especially his students of all ages. They reveled in his vast storehouse of knowledge and sterling personal qualities. Many students felt the impact that “Doc” had on their lives and were grateful for his support and wisdom.

CONCERTO COMPETITION WINNERS Connor Riley is currently attending his fourth and final year at West Chester University of Pennsylvania studying vocal performance. For the past four years he has studied voice with Dr. In Young Lee who has helped shaped him into the musician he is today. Throughout his time at West Chester, Connor has been a part of multiple ensembles including the school’s Concert Choir, Mastersingers, Recital Choir, and Vocal Jazz choir. He has also performed in many of the school’s operas, most notably as Monostatos in Die Zauberflöte (The Magic Flute) in the spring semester of 2018 and Toby in The Medium in the spring semester of 2017. He has also been the recipient of multiple awards including the first-place winner of the Raymond and May Grayson Friday Freshman Scholarship Award in 2016, the Roz Patton Diction Award in 2016, the firstplace winner of the Sophomore Vocal Scholarship Award in 2017, and the Roz Patton Most Improved Voice Major Scholarship Award in 2017. He has also participated the last three years in the National Association of Teachers of Singing (NATS) competitions, and last year acquired first place in the upper college male category for musical theatre. After West Chester, Connor is hoping to further his studies by pursuing a master’s degree in vocal performance.

Hyewon Jo has been studying cello since she was eight years old. She graduated from Gwangju Arts High School in Korea in 2011 and Chonnam National University in 2016, both of which she held positions of Principal Cellist. She has performed as a soloist with Gwangju Philharmonic Orchestra, Gwangju Woman’s Philharmonic Orchestra, Chonnam National University String Orchestra in Korea, and the Vidin Sinfonietta in Bulgaria. She has studied with Yujung Kim, Sung Eun Hong, Changheon Kim, and Ovidiu Marinescu. She is currently a graduate student studying Cello Performance at the West Chester University of Pennsylvania.

PROGRAM NOTES Boléro, Maurice Ravel

A boléro is a popular Spanish song, usually in triple meter and performed by a couple singing and dancing. Maurice Ravel, being a modern visionary of his time, put his own authentic spin on this traditional dance. Ravel was a French composer and one of the most original musicians of the early twentieth century. His instrumental writing explored new orchestral possibilities and focused on music of the past and the exotic.

Ravel’s Boléro was composed in 1928. While he considered it an unimportant piece, it has been one of his most popular works. Ida Rubinstein, a friend of Ravel, was a Russian dancer who wanted Ravel to write her a ballet score influenced by Spanish music. It took only five months for Ravel to finish Boléro, a short time in comparison to his other works, in order to meet Rubinstein’s deadline. Ravel had long been obsessed with writing a successful monothematic composition, and took this opportunity to explore playing with only one undeveloped theme. The snare drum ostinato begins the work and drives the orchestra for an entire fifteen minutes. Overtop, Ravel continues to layer luxurious and ethereal harmonic material alongside the repeating theme, which Ravel said that he thought “has an insistent quality.” While the theme never changes, the orchestration and harmonic complexity increases in tension until it finally erupts with a modulation from C major to E major, then abruptly resolving back to the home key of C major.

Le roi d’Ys, E. Lalo

Édouard-Victoire-Antoine Lalo was born in 1823 in northern France. His parents at first encouraged his musical endeavors, and he was able to study violin and cello at the local conservatory. When he wanted to pursue music as a career, he was met with such a strong opposition from his father, that he left home at the young age of 16 and went to study at the Paris Conservatory. He excelled in string teaching and performance, but composed very few works, mostly consisting of pieces for chamber ensemble. Lalo’s first opera, Fiesque, was written in 1866. The opera lost the competition into which Lalo entered the piece, and was never performed. Lalo pursued despite the loss and ended up composing Le roi d'Ys in the 1870s. The opera suddenly made Lalo incredibly famous to the French public when it was first performed, but the opus and composer are little known anywhere else.

Le roi d'Ys is a three-act opera composed between 1875 and 1878. When Lalo first published the work, it was immediately declared as impossible and unplayable; thus several opera houses refused to perform it. Once Lalo made some revisions in 1886, it received its first performance by the OpéraComique in the Salle du Châtelet, Paris, in May 1888. The performance was met with great acclaim by the audience.

Le roi d'Ys is inspired by the old Breton legend of the drowned city of Ys. In the opera, Margared, who is the daughter of the king of Ys, is betrothed to someone whom she does not truly love, Prince Karnac. When the wedding is supposed to start, Margared learns that Mylio, whom she believes is her true love, returns. She refuses to go on with the wedding and so Prince Karnac curses the city of Ys. Margared later learns that Mylio actually is in love and promises his hand in marriage with her sister, Rozenn. Margared, engulfed by anger, plots to seek revenge by working with Prince Karnac. She steals the keys to the sluice gates, which protect the city from the devastation of the ocean. At Mylio’s wedding ceremony, she and Karnac release the sluice gates, drowning a majority of the city. Margared, after realizing the atrocity produced by her actions, proceeds to hurl herself into the sea, calming the waves and saving what little is left of Ys.

Cello Concerto No. 1, Dmitri Shostakovich

Dmitri Shostakovich was a Russian composer under the Soviet regime. He has been considered as one of the best twentieth century symphonists, and a large portion of his compositions are part of the standard canon. Shostakovich created an emotionally-charged and expressive music language despite being tremendously oppressed by the Soviet regime. In fact, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union issued a declaration in 1958 singling out Shostakovich and a couple other Russian composers for following Western musical trends and not adhering to the State rules, just one year prior to when his cello concerto was written and performed. His Cello Concerto No. 1 was written for and dedicated to cellist, Mstislav Rostropovich. While this work is considered among the most difficult concerti written for cello, Rostropovich memorized the entire piece in only four days after Shostokovich finished it.

The opening movement consists of two primary themes. The first is derived from Shostakovich’s four-note musical monogram, DSCH (or D-E-flat-C-B in Western notation), which also appears in the other movements of the work. Shostakovich constantly reshapes this theme into engaging musical material throughout the movement. The second theme is derived from a folk melody that was often sung as a lullaby to children. The melody is also featured in the first movement of Songs and Dances of Death by Modest Petrovich Mussorgsky, when Death disguises himself as a babysitter and sings the tune to a dying child.

Overture in C, Fanny Mendelssohn

Fanny Mendelssohn-Bartholdy Hensel was one of the most prolific female musicians of the nineteenth century. She composed over 460 works, mainly for piano. In addition to composing, Fanny was a piano prodigy, who, at the young age of 13, performed all of Bach’s Well Tempered Clavier by memory.

One of her later teachers, Carl Friedrich Zelter, preferred her works to those of her brother, and complimented her by saying “She plays like a man.” Her brother, Felix, also an accomplished composer and conductor, and her husband Wilhelm Hensel, a prominent artist, supported her musical endeavors even though they contradicted societal norms for the time.

Overture in C is Fanny Mendelssohn’s only work for full orchestra. The piece was composed around 1830 when Mendelssohn was in her mid-twenties. It was only performed once during Fanny’s lifetime, and she never had it published. In fact, the first typeset publication of Fanny’s Overture was not until 1994, well over 150 years after she wrote the manuscript for the piece. The work starts with a slow, yet dramatic introduction, which seems to waken the orchestra from a deep slumber. The remainder of the piece is in conventional sonata-allegro form. An energetic fanfare theme begins the Allegro section, which is then contrasted by a more lyrical second theme, typical of nineteenth century style.

Sinfonie in D Major, F. J. Haydn

Franz Joseph Haydn’s symphonic legacy has yet to be surpassed. He is known as the first of the three Viennese Classical composers consisting of himself, Mozart, and Beethoven. Haydn composed significant vocal and instrumental works in every genre, is often labeled as the originator of the string quartet, and hailed as the “father of the Symphony.” He left us with 106 full symphonies, 104 of which were originally catalogued.

Sinfonie in D, or Haydn’s Symphony 104, is the last of his last symphonies. It was written in 1795 and nicknamed the “London Symphony” due to it being the last of his famous twelve symphonies inspired

by London. He made two trips to London when he was released of his patronage at Esterházy. The premiere of the “London Symphony” was held at the King’s Theatre in May 1795. Haydn directed this concert himself, and the program consisted only his pieces. Haydn was significantly pleased with this performance, and left being astonished at how much money he was able to make.

- Notes by James Devor

MUSICIANS Violin I Freddy Contreras-Romero, Concertmaster Blair Cunningham, Assistant Principal Brittany Welty River Michael Brian Robbins Amari Rickards Riley McGowan Violin II Kristin Erle, Principal Hanna Choi, Assistant Principal Kyla Eryka de Guia Katrina Cwiertniewicz Abigail Stratton Julianna Schweitzer Viola Abigail Keebler, Principal Meghan Freer Robert Cuthill Ruth Frazier Pam Jacobson Hannah Richards Violoncello Lia Criscuolo, Principal Lily Eckman Elisa Aquino Gomez Hyewon Jo Ally Paino Taylor Cope Connor McPartland Brett Bailey Emily Zook Monica Zheng William Shaw

Bass James Devor, Principal Amber Kowal Darby MacAdams Grace Wible Timothy Ragsdale Caleb Sharp Isaac Meyer Casey Warfield Saven Wright Flute Chloe Leed, Co-Principal Katie Stidham, Co-Principal Jessica Lynch Wiktoria Godawa Clarinet Nadine Silverman, Principal Zach Stola Laura Sachaczenski, Bass clarinet Bassoon Alex Brandreth, Principal Lori Marino Peter Young III, Contrabassoon Oboe John DeBiase, Principal Marlene Miller Hannah Shields, English horn Saxophone Andrew Morrison, Soprano Brian Foster, Tenor

Horn Matthew Hontz, Principal Libby Ando Nash Helsel Michael Antonacci Isaac Duquette Trumpet Adrianna Korey, Principal Chloe Francis Brand Davis Maeve Barta Zachary Prowse, Piccolo Trombone Michael Kaplan, Principal Kyle Jackier Woody Rehaag, Bass trombone Euphonium Will Rachko Tuba Chris Liounis Timpani Cameron Davis, Principal Percussion Luke Thurston, Principal Percussion Dan Farnum Sean Hayes Ben Pessognelli Harp Sarah Higgin-Benz Celesta Brett Bailey

Many thanks to the skilled work of the Executive Committee of the WCU Symphony Orchestra: Darby MacAdams: Executive Administrator Riley McGowan : Marketing Specialist Lily Eckman: Marketing Assistant Kristin Erle: Concert and Outreach Coordinator James Devor: Assistant to Concert and Outreach Coordinator Hannah Choi : Librarian

UPCOMING WELLS SCHOOL OF MUSIC EVENTS For full event details visit www.wcupa.edu/music or call (610) 436-2739 Monday, February 25, 2019, 7:30 PM Faculty Recital: Henry Grabb, oboe & Jonathan Gaarder, bassoon Henry Grabb and Jonathan Gaarder, directors Philips Autograph Library Philips Memorial Building Tuesday, February 26, 2019, 6:00 PM 2019 Benjamin Whitten Guest Artist: Albert Tiu, piano Terry Klinefelter, faculty liaison Ware Family Recital Hall Swope Music Building Wednesday, February 27, 2019, 8:15 PM Faculty Recital: Adam Silverman, composition Adam Silverman, director Ware Family Recital Hall Swope Music Building Thursday, February 28, 2019, 4:00 PM Wilkinson Lecture Series: Dr. Maureen Mahon, NYU Alexander Rozin, director Ware Family Recital Hall Swope Music Building Sunday, March 3, 2019, 3:00 PM Guest Artist Recital: Dr. Bradley Edwards, trombone Daniel Cherry, faculty liaison Ware Family Recital Hall Swope Music Building *Tickets required for this event.

Steinway & Sons Piano Technical, Tuning and Concert Preparations by Gerald P. Cousins, RPT A majority of performances are available to watch via live stream at Facebook.com/ArtsAtWCUPA and LiveStream.com/wcupa.

Mr. Robert Rust, Audio & Visual Technician Events at the Wells School of Music are often supported by individual sponsors and organizations.

Contributions to the Wells School of Music may be made out to: West Chester University Foundation 202 Carter Drive, West Chester, PA 19382

For further information, please call (610) 436-2868 or contact Dr. Christopher Hanning, Dean.

If you do not intend to save your program, please recycle it in the baskets at the exit doors.

The Wells School of Music | West Chester University of Pennsylvania Dr. Christopher Hanning, Dean