Wednesday, November 2, 2011


BRIGHTMUSIC TO PRESENT
REUNTION "FOUNDERS' CONCERT"
NOVEMBER 14 AND 15

    

On November 14-15, 2011, Brightmusic Chamber Music Ensemble will present two performances of its “Founders’ Concert.”  Brightmusic’s original artistic directors – Matthew Dane and Christina Jennings – will join Brightmusic’s current artistic directors – Chad Burrow and Amy I-Lin Cheng – in a long-awaited reunion concert. 

The works on the program are: (1) Claude Debussy’s “Prelude to The Afternoon of a Faun,” arranged by Rice University professor Michael Webster for flute, clarinet and piano; (2) Duo Concertante for Flute and Viola in C Minor by 18th Century French composer François Devienne; (3) 20th Century English composer Benjamin Britten’s “Lachrymae: Reflections on a Song of Dowland;” (4) “INBOX” composed for flute, viola and piano by Dr. Edward Knight, Professor of Music and Composer-in-Residence at Oklahoma City University; and (5) German Romantic composer Max Bruch’s “Eight Pieces” for viola, clarinet and piano. 

The musicians who will appear are: Matthew Dane (viola), Christina Jennings (flute), Chad Burrow (clarinet) and Amy I-Lin Cheng (piano).

The performances will take place: (1) on Monday, November 14th at 7:30 pm at Casady School, 9500 N. Pennsylvania Avenue at Britton Road and (2) on Tuesday, November 15th at 7:30 pm at St. Paul’s Episcopal Cathedral, 127 NW 7th Street at Robinson.  Admission is $10 per adult; students are free of charge.  A reception with the musicians will follow each performance. 

This concert is made possible by season grants from Chesapeake Energy Corporation, the Oklahoma Arts Council and the Ad Astra Foundation.                                                                                    
  
Guest Artists and Brightmusic Musicians Appearing:

Viola:  Dr. Matthew Dane, former principal violist, Oklahoma City Philharmonic Orchestra and associate professor of viola at the University of Oklahoma; currently principal violist with the River Oaks Chamber Orchestra (Houston), as well as a violist with the Baroque Chamber Orchestra of Colorado and the Boulder Piano Quartet; visiting faculty at the University of Colorado Boulder and adjunct faculty at Metropolitan State College in Denver; original Co-Artistic Director of Brightmusic.  For more information, see www.daneviola.com.
Flute:  Christina Jennings, principal flutist with the River Oaks Chamber Orchestra (Houston); assistant professor of flute at the University of Colorado Boulder; original Co-Artistic Director of Brightmusic.  For more information, see www.christinajennings.com.
Clarinet:  Chad Burrow, former principal clarinetist, Oklahoma City Philharmonic Orchestra and associate professor of clarinet at Oklahoma City University; currently assistant professor of clarinet, University of Michigan School of Music; current Co-Artistic Director of Brightmusic.  For more information, see www.chadburrow.com.
Piano: Dr. Amy I-Lin Cheng, concert pianist and collaborative musician; former head of the piano department at Oklahoma City University; currently a member of the piano faculty of the Ann Arbor School for the Performing Arts and a collaborative pianist at the University of Michigan School of Music; current Co-Artistic Director of Brightmusic.

Musical Works To Be Performed:

Claude Debussy (arranged by Michael Webster), “Prelude to The Afternoon of a Faun” (flute, clarinet and piano):  The teachers of Claude Debussy (1862-1918) at the Paris Conservatory considered him insolent because he thought his own rules of composition were superior to theirs.  Another young nonconformist, Eric Satie, suggested to Debussy that they create their own music – and make it “without any sauerkraut.”  Debussy became the finest French composer of his time and, in doing so, created that new music.  He was a revolutionary whose style did not trigger musical warfare.  Prelude to The Afternoon of a Faun was his early orchestral triumph.  Premiered in 1894, its exotic, sensual sounds created a “dreamlike trance” that “set twentieth-century music on its way.”  [Schoenberg]  Debussy disliked the label impressionist, but the way he painted with his music certainly “enlarged music’s color wheel.”  [Dubal]  Prelude was a watershed composition, occupying “a place in musical history comparable to the Eroica Symphony.”  [Schoenberg]  The arrangement Brightmusic will play was written by clarinetist and Rice University music professor Michael Webster.

François Devienne, Duo Concertante for Flute and Viola in C Minor, op. 5., no. 3: 
François Devienne (1759-1803) was a French contemporary of Mozart – a composer, performer, teacher and scholar.  The youngest of 14 children, he moved to Paris at age 20, where he studied, taught and performed bassoon and flute with ensembles including the Paris Opera.  In 1793 he authored an important book about flute technique.  When the Paris Conservatory was chartered in 1795, he became one of its first flute professors.  Devienne composed 12 operas and approximately 300 other works.   Jean-Pierre Rampal’s performances of Devienne’s works revived his music for the concert-going public.  Devienne composed six duets for flute and viola, each in two movements.  They were unusual for their time because the composer assigned approximately equal importance to each instrument.
Benjamin Britten, “Lachrymae: Reflections on a Song of Dowland” (viola and piano):  Benjamin Britten (1913-1976) created a wide variety of music but marched to his own drummer.  He “made his mark before World War II and never substantially changed his style,” [Schoenberg] even though this “went against the grain of the postwar era.”  [Ross]  In Lachrymae  he “revives the Elizabethan world” of composer and lute player John Dowland (1563-1626).  Britten wrote Lachrymae to perform with violist William Primrose at the 1950 Aldeburgh Festival.  Britten’s “reflections” are ten short variations on Dowland’s song, “If My Complaint Could Passions Move.”  Typically, variation style states the theme first, followed by the variations.  Although Dowland’s song makes a brief appearance at the beginning of this work, Britten reveals Dowland’s song, as the Renaissance composer wrote it, only at the end.

Edward Knight, “INBOX” (flute, viola and piano):  Dr. Edward Knight (b. 1961) is a Professor of Music, Composer-in-Residence and Director of Composition at Oklahoma City University.  He has composed works for orchestra, symphonic band, percussion ensemble and piano trio, as well as a clarinet sonata, cabaret songs, two fanfares and two original, full-length romantic musical comedies.  The four movements of “INBOX” explore a world in which a flood of information awaits us each morning: “Do Not Delete” (the joy of spam and viruses), “Classmate Quest” (the connection of classmates now living in different worlds), “Match.com” (the romance of cyber dating), and “EBay Bid Wars” (the frenetic world of online auctions).  “INBOX” was commissioned and premiered in 2009 by Matthew Dane, Christina Jennings and Alexandra Nguyen.  Ed Knight serves as a member of the board of directors of Brightmusic.

Max Bruch, “Eight Pieces,” Op. 83 (clarinet, viola and piano): Max Bruch (1838-1920) was one of the most prominent practitioners of 19th-Century German Romanticism (probably one of the composers whose “sauerkraut” Debussy and Satie wanted to leave behind).  He composed instrumental and choral music for the concert hall, theater and church.  He was also a conductor and, from 1891-1910, a professor of composition at the Berlin Hochschule für Musik.  His music was, like Mendelssohn’s, conservative in form and harmony, but it reflected “deep thoughtfulness and melodic richness.”  [Dubal]  Bruch composed his autumnal “Eight Pieces” at age 72 for his clarinetist son.  Seven of the eight are in minor keys that “draw the mellowest sound possible” from the instruments.  [Reel]  “Eight Pieces” is a work of special meaning to Brightmusic:  It was performed at Brightmusic’s second concert on January 13, 2004, by the same four wonderful musicians who will perform it at this concert. 

Brightmusic is on the Web at www.brightmusic.org
From the press release

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