Wells School of Music Harpfest Claire Jones, Former Harpist to the Prince of Wales Christopher Jones, Composer and Percussionist West Chester University Harp Ensemble Divine Hand Ensemble Professor Gloria Galante, Director Sunday, November 11, 2018 Madeleine Wing Adler Theatre Performing Arts Center 3:00 PM
PROGRAM America the Beautiful ......................................................... Samuel A. Ward/Katharine Lee Bates
Helena Nicole Volpe & Yatsar Matos Gomez, harps
Prince of Denmark’s March ..................................................................................... Jeremiah Clarke (1674-1707)
Dominique Maynard, trumpet
Baroque Fantasia ..................................................................................................... Stephanie Curcio
WCU Harp Ensemble
Peaches En Regalia........................................................................................................ Grank Zappa (1940-1993) La Vie En Rose .................................................................................................................... Edith Piaf (1915-1963)
Divine Hand Ensemble
Adagio Royale .............................................................................................. Francoise De Boisvallee Arr. Stephanie Curcio
Gloria Galante and Mary Bryson, harps
Moldau, Op.4 ........................................................................................................... Bedřich Smetana (1824-1912) Transcription Hans Trnecek
Michael Turner, harp
Rêverie, Op.26 ................................................................................................ Alphonse Hasselmans (1845-1912)
Jacquelyn Sherman, harp
Walking In the Air ........................................................................................................ Howard Blake (1953-)
Yatsar Matos Gomez, vocals; Hope Thompson, harp; Suzzette Ortiz, piano
Marianne ................................................................................................................................... Calypso Arr. Gloria Galante
Featuring Professor Raul Berrios, Asaf Berrios, Waleska Lopen WCU Harp Ensemble
My Song in the Night...................................................................................... American Folk Hymn Arr. Rhett Barnwell Spring .......................................................................................................................... Antonio Vivaldi (1678-1741) Arr. Chris Marshall
WCU Harp Ensemble
PROGRAM OF CLARE JONES, HARP Themes from the opera Eugene Onegin .......................................... Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky (1840-1893) Ladies in Lavender ............................................................................................. Nigel John Hess (1953-) Poem ....................................................................................................................... Zdeněk Fibich *as performed at the Royal Wedding 2011 (1850-1900) Arr. Claire Jones (1985-) Sundance .............................................................................................................. William Mathais (1934-1992) Toss The Feathers ....................................................................................................... Traditional
Chris Jones, cajon; Claire Jones, harp Libertango ............................................................................................................... Astor Piazolla (1933-1990) Arr. Chris Marshall
Chris Jones, cajon; Claire Jones, harp WCU Harp Ensemble Danse des Sylphes ......................................................................... Dieudonné-Félix Godefroid (1818-1897)
Please Turn Off All Electronic Devices
ARTIST PROFILES & PROGRAM NOTES Britain’s bestselling classical harpist, Claire Jones was born in Wales. Following her appointment as Official Harpist to His Royal Highness the Prince of Wales (2007-11), she became a household name for her esteemed performance at the Royal Wedding for the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge. Solo career highlights include solo and concerto appearances with the World’s top orchestras and artists such as the English Chamber Orchestra, Philharmonia Orchestra, Mariinsky Theatre Ballet Orchestra, Zurich Chamber Orchestra, London Mozart Players, Philharmonia, Sir James Galway; Maestro Gergiev, Sir Neville Marriner, Sir Bryn Terfel, and Alfie Bow to name only a few. She has performed prestigious recitals at Wigmore Hall and Cadogan Hall (London), Capitol Hill (USA), City Hall (Hong Kong), International Harp Festival (Brazil) and at the Millennium Stadium for and audience of 75,000. Claire is no stranger to the classical charts with her albums ‘Girl With The Golden Harp’, ‘Journey’, 'Highrove Suite', and ’This Love’ reaching the top of the classical charts. Claire is a firm favorite on Classic FM playlists, and her albums have been released worldwide. Claire has a first-class BMus(hons) degree from The Royal College of Music and studied as an MA (Scholar) at the Royal Academy of Music, London. In 2016 she was awarded an honorary Associateship from the Royal Academy of Music London for her significant contribution to her profession, and is an international ambassador for jewelry company, Clogau. Chris Marshall from Cardiff has performed extensively as a percussionist specializing in World music, he has appeared and recorded with many prestigious orchestras and artists, and has performed on numerous productions in London’s Westend. Chris balances his performance schedule with his flourishing career as a composer and arranger. His growing portfolio of compositions, includes the music for Heartstrings (no 1 download on iTunes) which was recorded for Classic FM/Decca in 2012 and was featured on Claire Jones’ album - Girl With The Golden Harp. Chris has composed Bluestone and arranged many tracks on Claire’s chart topping album Journey. Chris has composed music for TV adverts including a track for Clogau, shown internationally, and for ‘Fisherman’s Friends’ currently shown in the USA. He is working on the next TV advert for Clogau to be released later in the year. In 2017 he was commissioned to arrange and conduct a new album with the Portuguese singer sensation, Yolanda Soares, with whom he has performed recently with at the Tivoli Theatre Lisbon and Colisseum in Porto. He has also been commissioned by the American Youth Harp Ensemble and choir to compose a special set of works which will be premiered on PBS television in the USA and at Carnegie Hall in 2019. His career highlights as a percussionist include appearing with the BBC symphony Orchestra, English National Ballet, London Mozart Players, The Royal Shakespeare Company and the BBC National Orchestra of Wales. Chris has also worked on many productions in London's Westend and international touring shows in the UK and China, these include; We Will Rock You, Wizard of Oz, Zorro, Carousel, West Side Story, Evita, Love Beyond, Big, and Elf the Musical. Chris has a passion for playing instruments from all around the world, and it has resulted in seeing him perform on numerous recording sessions for TV and film. He also performs as part of C2 duet with his wife, and former Official Harpist to HRH Prince
Charles - Claire Jones. This unique duo has travelled extensively throughout the UK and in the USA. Raúl Berríos is a musician and cultural promoter of Puerto Rico. He and his son, Asaf were among the first Puerto Ricans to arrive in Philadelphia after the destructive passage of Hurricane Maria on the island last September 20, 2017. The house was not the only thing these two Puerto Ricans left on the island. Raúl is a musician, but also a cultural promoter with more than 40 years of experience and a working capacity of the Caribbean artists. In Puerto Rico, he led several projects, including the Santa Cecilia Museum (patron saint of musicians), a project with which, through the recreation of ancestral instruments, he rescued the connection between Africa and the Caribbean. There is also the Blind Jazz Project, a jazz band made up of blind musicians that Raúl has helped to create. The band is widely known on the island. And, as if that was not enough, there is EcoMusiclaje, a project with which he managed to kill two birds with one stone: to create awareness of the need to take care of the island's natural resources, and to continue promoting musical learning in childhood as part of the need to preserve Puerto Rican folkloric wealth. Belgian-born Alphonse Hasselmans was a key figure in the genre of harp playing in the late-19th and early-20th centuries. He established the French School of harp playing. Hasselmans was born in Liège on March 5, 1845, the son of Josef H. Hasselmanns, a prominent conductor, harpist and violinist. Young Alphonse exhibited talent on the harp as a child and began study on the instrument at the Strasbourg Conservatory with his father. He later took instruction on the harp in Stuttgart from Gottlieb Krüger, in Brussels from Xavier Desargas, and at the Paris Conservatory from Ange-Conrad Prumier. Hasselmans' earliest significant post was harpist for the orchestra at the Théâtre de la Monnaie (Brussels), hardly a venue for him to showcase his rare talent. He gave a series of solo appearances in Paris in 1877 that created a sensation. Alphonse secured a succession of posts with major ensembles: the Paris Conservatory Orchestra, the Opéra National de Paris, and the Opéra-Comique Paris. As a solo performer Hasselmans played his compositions in concert. Of his fifty-four works all were for solo harp, none for harp and orchestra, such as Gitana, Op. 21 and La Source, Op. 44.In the latter part of his career Hasselmans began to turn toward teaching and the refining of harp techniques. In 1884 he was appointed professor of harp at the Paris Conservatory, a post he held until his death. Over the coming years Hasselmans’ students would include some of the greatest harpists of the 20th century: Marcel Grandjany, Marcel Tournier, Pierre Jamet, Henriette Renié and Carlos Salzedo. Hasselmans was a strict and difficult teacher. He wrote an important essay, La harpe et sa technique (published in 1913), outlining his principles of harp playing. He died in Paris, France in 1912. La Vie En Rose-The song's title can be translated as "Life in happy hues", "Life seen through happy lenses", "Life in rosy hues"; its literal meaning is "Life in Pink”. The lyrics and melody of the song were written by Édith Piaf herself, but the melody was said
officially to have been composed and registered by Louiguy only, since at the time, due to the stringent registration requirements of SACEM, Piaf did not have the necessary qualifications to be able to copyright her work with SACEM. Piaf offered the song to Marianne Michel, who slightly modified the lyrics, changing "les choses" ("things") for "la vie" ("life"). In 1943, Piaf had performed at a bordello called "La Vie en Rose�. The song was performed live in concert for the first time in 1946. It became a favorite with audiences. "La Vie en rose" was the song that made Piaf internationally famous, with its lyrics telling about the joy of finding true love and appealing to those who had survived the difficult wartime. Antonio Lucio Vivaldi was an Italian Baroque musical composer, virtuoso violinist, teacher, and priest. Born in Venice, the capital of the Venetian Republic, he is recognized as one of the greatest Baroque composers, and his influence during his lifetime was widespread across Europe. He died in Vienna, Austria.
HISTORY OF THE HARP The harp is one of the oldest musical instruments in the world. The earliest harps were developed from the hunting bow. The wall paintings of ancient Egyptian tombs dating from as early as 3000 B.C. show an instrument that closely resembles the hunter's bow, without the pillar that we find in modern harps. The angled harp came to Egypt from Asia in about 1500 B.C. It was built from a hollow sound-box joined to a straight string-arm at an angle. The strings, possibly made of hair or plant fibre, were attached to the sound-box at one end and tied to the string-arm at the other. The strings were tuned by rotating the knots that held them. During the Middle Ages the pillar was added to support the tension of extra strings. Stiffer string materials like copper and brass were used and these changes enabled the instrument to produce greater volume and a longer-sustaining tone. Paintings of these harps appear in many early manuscripts and their shapes hardly differ from those of the Celtic harps that are still played today. As the early harps had no mechanical devices for providing the player with different keys, harpists found it necessary to retune those strings they required for each piece. Eventually, in the latter half of the seventeenth century a row of metal hooks was placed along the left side of the harp. When the player manually turned a hook against an individual string, the string's pitch was raised a half step. Modern non-pedal harps are built with greatly advanced sharping levers installed for each string which produce a very good tonal quality when engaged. Levers are generally moved with the left hand and skilled players can achieve changes very quickly. The earliest known depiction of a frame harp in the British Isles is on an eighth century stone cross. Music was an important part of life in ancient Ireland and the harp was an aristocratic instrument, played in the courts of kings and before the chiefs of clans. Harpers were required to be able to evoke three different emotions in their audience by their music: Laughter, tears and sleep. With the Anglicization of the Irish nobility, the
traditional harpers became minstrels and street musicians reciting poetry and singing folk songs to the accompaniment of their harps. Sometime before 1720 a mechanism was developed in order to meet the growing demands from harpists for an instrument that was capable of a broader range of pitch. Seven pedals built into the base of the harp could raise the pitch by half a step. For instance, if the harp were tuned to C-flat, then depressing the pedal would raise the C strings to C-natural. The single action harp was born. The pedals were connected to metal rods, which passed through the fore pillar to the top where the chromatic action was housed inside the curved neck. The action pulled the string onto a fret by means of an adjustable crochet, or hook mechanism which, when engaged, shortened the length of the string and raised the pitch one half step. When tuned in the key of E-flat, the instrument could be played in eight major keys and five minor keys. The single action harp achieved great popularity throughout the rest of the 18th century as was evidenced in the French Court by Marie Antoinette; perhaps, the most famous player of this instrument. The harps of this period were magnificently decorated with relief carving, lavishly gilded and hand painted. Besides being musical instruments they were undoubtedly prized as object d'art when displayed in the gilded salons of the era. As music evolved it was also necessary for the harp, if it was to maintain its popularity, to move with the times. Instead of only being limited to eight major keys and five minor keys, it had become vitally important for the harp to be able to played in all keys. As a result of this need, Sebastian Erard obtained a patent in 1810 for the Double Action pedal harp. Erard redesigned the single action mechanism, replacing the crochets with two rotating pronged discs. The strings, now each equipped with two discs, were able to produce a flat, natural and a sharp depending on the position of the corresponding pedal, allowing the harpist to play in every key. This ingenious invention revolutionized the harp and is still in use today. The harp has since continued to evolve and has had many significant improvements made to it over the past two centuries. In the late 1800's Lyon and Healy, a Chicago based company which is still building harps today, began building harps in America with greatly strengthened frames and many important improvements to Erard's double action mechanism. Due to the continued popularity of the harp into the 20th century, many other harp makers arrived on the scene each bringing their own improvements and inventions without which the instrument would not have been able to maintain its foothold in modern society. In America, besides Lyon and Healy, some other pedal harp makers include Wurlitzer, Venus and Swanson. Some additional makers in Europe include Salvi, Camac, Horngacher, David and Thurau as well as Aoyama in Japan. The 21st century holds great promise for continued popularity of the harp as is evidenced by the myriad festivals, conventions, societies, harp builders, music, performances and career opportunities available to harpists. From Medieval to Modern, Classical to Jazz, from Acoustic to Electric. The harp is an instrument steeped in tradition yet open to change and for many it is more than a mere instrument, it is a calling.
UPCOMING WELLS SCHOOL OF MUSIC EVENTS For full event details visit www.wcupa.edu/music or call (610) 436-2739 Monday, November 12, 2018, 7:30 PM Guest Artists: David Friedman & Toni Miceli, vibraphones Marc Jacoby, director Ware Family Recital Hall Swope Music Building Tuesday, November 13, 2018, 8:15 PM New Music Concert Van Stiefel & Jacob Cooper, directors Ware Family Recital Hall Swope Music Building Wednesday, November 14, 2018, 8:15 PM Guitar Ensemble David Cullen, director Ware Family Recital Hall Swope Music Building Wednesday, November 14, 2018, 8:15 PM Guest Artist Timothy Northcut; Jonathan Fowler, tuba; and Daniel Cherry, trombone Jon Fowler & Dan Cherry, directors Philips Autograph Library Philips Memorial Building Thursday, November 15, 2018, 7:30 PM Recital Choir David P. DeVenney, director 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