Keeping Tempo August 2010

Keeping Tempo

Volume 2, Number 1 August 2010

YOBC Kicks Off 20th Anniversary Season

Inside this issue: Chris Brubeck and Triple Play: Featured Artists at YOBC Gala

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Conductors’ Notes: My Love for Opera

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YOBC’s Wine Tasting And Live Auction

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Student Spotlight: Melissa Gansworth

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Notes from the Executive Director: History Began A Second Ago

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YOBC Alumna Jess Clough Marketing the Philadelphia Orchestra

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Important Dates: 

Saturday September 11: Orientations and Fall Kickoff Event!

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Sunday, September 12: Fall rehearsals begin

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Sunday, September 26: 2012 International Tour parents meeting, 2:15 PM

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October 30, 2010: YOBC Wine Tasting & Live Auction

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Saturday, November 20, 2010: Fall Concerts

Welcome back to YOBC as we get ready to kick off our 20th Anniversary Season!

This year we begin with a record number of students—over 200— representing all of the Bucks County public school districts, numerous private and parochial schools, as well as schools in Montgomery, Philadelphia, and Mercer Counties.

This year there is something for everyone— students, their families and friends, community members, and over 1,000 YOBC alumni.

The YOBC season will begin with a special kickoff event for our Advanced Division students.

This event was suggested by our Student Council as a way for students to socialize and get to know each other before rehearsals start. The day will include some rehearsals and sectionals, combined with food and fun, and YOBC’s orientation.

YOBC members will enjoy a series of master classes this year that will be held on Sundays during regular rehearsal times.

These master classes will

be made available free of charge to members of the community who are interested in learning more about their instrument and YOBC. Non-YOBC guests can watch the website for information about the classes and how to register.

Friends and family will want to join us on October 30 at Crossing Vineyards and Winery in New Hope for our first-ever wine tasting and live auction. This event will be a fundraiser for YOBC programs—especially our Gala Celebration in May 2011 (see page 2). The wine tasting will provide an opportunity for YOBC parents and friends to get to know each other outside of the YOBC rehearsals.

Best of all, this year will culminate in a magnificent concert at Patriot’s Theater in the Trenton War Memorial. This will be the first time our students perform in a real local concert venue—but we hope to make it an annual tradition for our Advanced Division students. The May 21, 2011 Gala Celebration will include all YOBC students, and we expect many

Still conducting after 20 years…. Robert Loughran is YOBC’s Music Director and conductor of Philharmonia and Symphony Orchestra.

alumni to join us on stage or in the audience. The concert will also feature guest artists Chris Brubeck and Triple Play (see page 2) as part of our new Crossing Classical Boundaries program. This is a wonderful opportunity to work with classically trained professional musicians who have expanded their classical repertoire into American jazz, blues, and folk traditions.

Keep track of all the exciting events we have planned by bookmarking our website. We look forward to welcoming everyone back this year!

Chris Brubeck and Triple Play: Featured Artists at YOBC Gala YOBC’s 20th Anniversary Gala Celebration will include a performance with guest artists Chris Brubeck and Triple Play. This special performance is part of the Crossing Classical Boundaries program we hope to offer on a regular basis. The idea for the program is to stretch the musical boundaries for our students and the guest artists.

Triple Play is the name given to three outstanding and versatile musicians, Peter Madcat Ruth (on harmonica, guitar, jaw harp, percussion, and vocals), Joel Brown (folk and classical acoustic guitar and vocals), and Chris Brubeck (electric bass, bass trombone, piano, and vocals). With an everexpanding repertoire, the trio plays

concert halls, clubs, and festivals all over the United States, including performing many of Chris’s symphonic arrangements with orchestras around the country. In addition to their own performance, Triple Play will be playing three pieces with YOBC’s Symphony Orchestra at the Gala Concert: “Take Five,” “Blues Rondo à la Turke,” and “Unsquare Dance.” Chris will perform the first movement of his trombone concerto with the YOBC Wind Ensemble.

Earlier in the season, Chris will also be conducting a master class at YOBC.

Joel Brown, Chris Brubeck, and Peter Madcat Ruth are Triple Play and will appear with YOBC at the 20th Anniversary Gala in May 2011.

Conductors’ Notes: My Love for Opera Throughout my entire music career, which has taken me to places like Canada, Italy, Central America, and the United States, I developed a definite passion for opera. It started even before I became a musician while, as a child, I listened to my mother sing arias instead of lullabies. She in turn was inspired by her father who was a major opera lover.

Like most everyone, I was initiated into opera with Puccini, Verdi, Rossini, Mozart, Bizet, and Wagner to name a few. Anyone who has not heard La Bohème, Madama Butterfly, Aïda, La Traviata, Il Barbiere di Siviglia, Don Giovanni, Carmen, or Der Ring des Nebelungen has missed a lot. The music, the dramatic work (libretto), the singers, the orchestra, the conductor, the chorus, the dancers, the costumes, the acting and the scenery all make for incredible entertainment.

As my passion for this form of music evolved, I became aware of a much less-known form of opera: the Baroque Opera which, as its name suggests, was developed during the Page 2

Baroque Era (1600–1750). With continuous research by musicologists, more and more of these forgotten works are being produced on small stages across the world; the most famous composers being Handel, Purcell, Rameau, and Gluck.

With the use of countertenors (a male singing voice whose vocal range is equivalent to that of a contralto, mezzo-soprano, or a soprano) to replace the original castrati (castrated male singers), these operas bring a totally new color to the singing taking place.

This coming spring, the New York Metropolitan Opera will be staging Orfeo ed Euridice by Christoph Willibald Gluck.

David Daniels, my favorite countertenor, will be singing the title role of Orfeo. If you happen to be at the Metropolitan Opera for one of the performances, you are most likely going to share this experience with me somewhere in the audience.

—Nicole Lambert, Conductor YOBC Flute Choir and the Chamber Flute Ensemble

YOBC’s Wine Tasting and Live Auction On Saturday, October 30, 2010, YOBC will be hosting a festive wine tasting at Crossing Vineyards & Winery, in historic Washington Crossing, Pennsylvania, from 6:30 to 9:30 PM. Enjoy award-winning wines crafted

by Crossing Vineyards and elegant, butlered hors d’œuvres prepared by Grand Cru, served up to the acoustic guitar stylings of Brad Mills and the lovely sounds of the Rondeau string quartet. Bid for unusual items in our entertaining silent auction. Wrap up the evening by jumping into a dazzling live auction and take home one of our fantastic packages! We cordially invite parents, friends and community members to enjoy this wonderful evening. Tickets are $65 each and may be purchased online at www.yobc.org. or at YOBC Sunday rehearsals. All proceeds will benefit the Youth Orchestra of Bucks County.

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tudent

potlight: Melissa Gansworth

What did you do on your summer vacation? YOBC’s Melissa Gansworth went to New York and played at Carnegie Hall! In June, Melissa took part in the American High School Honors Performance Series at the famous concert hall, established “to showcase some of the most talented performers in high school today.” Melissa spent five days in New York, rehearsing 10 hours a day, and enjoying some of the sights of the city. The program culminated in a performance for a sold-out crowd of 1,600 “New York concert-going patrons and specially … collegiate and professional music program representatives” as well as families and friends who were able to make the trip.

Melissa was nominated for the program by her band teacher at

Neshaminy High School, Donna Burmylo-Magrann, who says Melissa has a great attitude toward learning. “She worked so hard [in middle school] and continued to work hard in HS as my student. She has a great attitude and helps out her section.” Last fall, Melissa sent in a CD she made on a friend’s computer. In December she learned that she was one of only 90 band students accepted for the program. Upon arriving in New York, and meeting students from all around the United States, Canada, and the Caribbean, there were seating auditions (Melissa earned third chair) before the hard work of the rehearsals. The music was more difficult than what she is used to playing at YOBC or at school, but by the third rehearsal, under the direction of Profes-

Melissa (second from right) enjoying Times Square with some new friends.

sor Robert Reynolds of the University of Southern California, the band really came together.

Melissa will begin her second year at YOBC this fall. She plays trombone in the Wind Ensemble and Symphony. At Neshaminy, where she will be a senior, she plays in the marching band, jazz band, wind ensemble, and orchestra. She hopes to study music performance when she graduates.

Notes from the Executive Director: History Began a Second Ago YOBC turns 20 this year. The BBC History magazine recently turned 20 too. To mark the occasion, they conducted a survey to find out where people think history actually starts.

Incredibly, a third of the people said…one second ago! Anything already past is…well…history. What a fascinating view! Time stands neatly divided between what we have done and what we will do. Like jumping into an ice-cold lake on a hot summer day, it makes us want to get moving with an urgency we can’t resist —to pursue the opportunity of each moment before it is lost to history! Most people in the survey, however, felt that past events do not become history for at least 10 years. They believe that it takes at least that long to understand how the pieces of the past really fit together. This 10-year period is an in-between place where the past and future simmer together—each flavoring the meaning of the other—in a rich soup we call the present. This way of looking at things encourages us to think about Volume 2, Number 1

our choices, to consider where we are coming from and where we want to go.

As we begin YOBC’s 20th Anniversary Season, both ways of looking at our history are useful. Looking back, YOBC’s 20-year mission has always been to provide students with

This year, we will be celebrating YOBC’s anniversary with a Gala Concert. a rich classical music experience in a positive and encouraging setting. We are committed to offering programs with the highest possible artistic standards. We maintain high expectations, but believe in working with students in a collaborative and respectful manner. We invigorate and challenge our students by bringing in guest artists of the highest caliber. We supplement our programs with special events, trips, and international concert tours.

These ideas have been and will

continue to be central to our mission. But this year, in our 20th Anniversary Season, we are compelled by an urgency to pursue our future.

We want to offer our students more and better opportunities. We want to make YOBC a place where students can exceed their own expectations. This year, we will be celebrating YOBC’s anniversary with a Gala Concert to be held at the Trenton War Memorial on May 21. This fabulous concert will feature YOBC students, wonderful guest artists, and 20 years of YOBC alumni. We invite everyone—students, parents, alumni, friends, and supporters—to join us in making this a mountaintop experience for the students at YOBC. Mark it on your calendar.

Sign up to help. Learn your music.

Join the alumni group. Make a contribution. Offer to coach. Pursue the opportunity because, as the BBC History magazine reminds us, “History? It began a second ago.”

—Colleen Sweetsir YOBC Executive Director Page 3

Save the Date!

For These Upcomin

252 Hollow Branch Lane Yardley, PA 19067 Email: info.yobc@gmail.com auditions@yobc.org

yobc.org

g YOBC Events

YOBC Wine Tastin g and Live Auction Crossing Vineyards Washington Cross ing, Pennsylvania October 30, 2010 YOBC 20th Anniv ersary Gala Concer t Trenton War Mem orial May 21, 2011 YOBC 2012 Intern ational Concert To ur Southern France & Northern Spain Summer 2012

YOBC Alumna Jess Clough Marketing the Philadelphia Orchestra Jessica Clough was a member of YOBC for eight years. She was a member of the Concert Orchestra (back when it was called Concert Orchestra) and Symphony Orchestra, and also played in a few chamber ensembles over the years. In her junior year, Jess won the Concerto Competition and soloed with the Symphony Orchestra, “an absolutely incredible experience. I played the first movement of the Bruch Violin Concerto. There is nothing quite like performing as a soloist with an entire orchestra behind you.”

Jess recently graduated from the University of Richmond where she majored in music (violin performance) and minored in business administration. “Being a music major was not something I had initially planned on doing, but it ended up being one of the best things that happened to me…. I had quite a few phenomenal opportunities during my time there:  I was the soloist for the University President's Inauguration (played for a crowd of over 3,000!); Page 4

 I was the concertmaster of the University Orchestra for all four years;  I played in a number of different chamber ensembles, including the University String Quartet comprised of my best colleagues and friends;  One of my best friends [a composer] wrote a piece for me, which I played on a number of occasions, including at the Third Practice Music Festival and a music festival in Brooklyn, NY;  I had private lessons and chamber coaching with members of Eighth Blackbird, the Grammyaward-winning chamber group, who always made themselves available and came to my recitals;  I formed meaningful relationships with my professors who always went the extra mile, including our department chair.”

Currently, Jess is the Marketing Fellow at The Philadelphia Orchestra where she is in charge of the Orchestra’s college ticket program, eZseatU. This program began two years ago with funding from a

grant, and is now in its third year after a VERY successful first two years. Any college student age 17– 30 can purchase a $25 membership, which grants them unlimited access to any of the over 100 Philadelphia Orchestra subscription concerts for FREE! Jess plans a big free concert for all college students as part of the Orchestra’s opening weekend, and a number of other college night parties for eZseatU members throughout the year. She coordinates marketing and all facets of the program, and in addition she is in charge of The Philadelphia Orchestra's social networking. Become a fan on Facebook or follow them on Twitter!

The fellowship is a one-year position. As for the future, Jess loves working in the nonprofit sector, especially for performing arts organizations that she is passionate about, so she will probably follow this path for a little while.

As for YOBC’s 20th Anniversary Gala Concert, Jess says, “I will be attending! It should be a great time!”