We’ve landed a super sub for the November cancellation that occurred when East Coast weather grounded Solid Brass. Unable to reschedule, we turned to an exciting young group we had already been eying for next year’s series: the all-female Seraph Brass led by trumpet standout Mary Bowden. They’ll perform for us at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, April 24. (Use your tickets for the cancelled show for this one; if you’ve misplaced them, just check in at our Civic Music table in the lobby.)
Category: e-Notes
Imani Winds – Biography
Season Listing | Program | Program Notes | Biography
Members
Julietta Curenton, flute
Toyin Spellman-Diaz, oboe
Mark Dover, clarinet
Jeff Scott, French horn/composer
Monica Ellis, bassoon
Celebrating 20 Years
Extolled by the Philadelphia Inquirer as “what triumph sounds like”, Imani Winds has established itself as one of the most successful chamber music ensembles in the United States. Since 1997, the Grammy nominated quintet has taken a unique path, carving out a distinct presence in the classical music world with its dynamic playing, culturally poignant programming, adventurous collaborations, and inspirational outreach programs. With two member composers and a deep commitment to commissioning new work, the group is enriching the traditional wind quintet repertoire while meaningfully bridging European, American, African and Latin American traditions. Read More
Imani Winds – Program
Season Listing | Program | Program Notes | Biography
Imani Winds
Brown County Civic Music Association
March 3, 2018
Old Made New
Startin Sumthin Jeff Scott (b. 1967)
Scheherazade Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov (1844-1908) arr. Jonathan Russell
Contrabajissimo Astor Piazzolla (1921-1992) arr. Jeff Scott
— Intermission —
Sechs Bagatellen György Ligeti (1923-2006)
- Allegro con spirito
- Rubato. Lamentoso
- Allegro grazioso
- Presto ruvido
- Adagio. Mesto
- Molto vivace. Capriccioso
The Light is the Same Reena Esmail (b. 1983)
Commissioned by Lied Center of Kansas.
Premiered March 15, 2017 at University of Kansas, Lawrence.
Tzigane Valerie Coleman (b. 1970)
Imani Winds – Program Notes
Season Listing | Program | Program Notes | Biography
Jeff Scott
Startin Sumthin (note by Jeff Scott)
Born 1967, Queens, NY
Startin Sumthin is a modern take on the genre of Ragtime music. With an emphasis on ragged! The defining characteristic of Ragtime music is a specific type of syncopation in which melodic accents occur between metrical beats. This results in a melody that seems to be avoiding some metrical beats of the accompaniment by emphasizing notes that either anticipate or follow the beat. The ultimate (and intended) effect on the listener is actually to accentuate the beat, thereby inducing the listener to move to the music. Scott Joplin, the composer/pianist known as the “King of Ragtime”, called the effect “weird and intoxicating.”
Anderson & Roe – Biography
Season Listing | Biography | Program | Program Notes
Described as “the most dynamic duo of this generation” (San Francisco Classical Voice), “rock stars of the classical music world” (Miami Herald), and “the very model of complete 21st-century musicians” (The Washington Post), the Anderson & Roe Piano Duo has won fans worldwide.
Their albums on the Steinway Label (When Words Fade, An Amadeus Affair, and The Art of Bach) were released to critical acclaim and have spent dozens of weeks at the top of the Billboard Classical Charts. Their Emmy-nominated, self-produced music videos have been viewed by millions on YouTube and at international film festivals.
Since forming their dynamic musical partnership in 2002 as students at The Juilliard School, Anderson & Roe have toured extensively as recitalists and orchestral soloists, presented at numerous international leader symposiums, and appeared on MTV, PBS, NPR, and the BBC. A live performance by Anderson & Roe was handpicked to appear on the Sounds of Juilliard CD celebrating the school’s centenary.
Highlights of the 2017/18 season include concerts throughout North America (including their Kennedy Center debut), Europe, Asia, and New Zealand; concerto appearances with the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra, San Francisco Symphony, and Rochester Philharmonic; the release of their latest album, Mother Muse; and webcast hosting for the 15th Van Cliburn International Piano Competition.
A recent concert review in the Washington Post observed that the duo has “elevated four-hand keyboard music into an art form.”
“While each is a virtuosic powerhouse pianist in his and her own right,” the review continued, “what sets the pair apart is an ability to make emotional and spiritual connections with their audiences, not only through their merry music-making but also their intelligent and witty commentary in between playing.”
Anderson & Roe – Program
Season Listing | Biography | Program | Program Notes
Saturday, April 7, 2018
Anderson & Roe piano duo
Leonard Bernstein / Anderson & Roe
Prelude, Fugue, and Riffs
John Adams
Hallelujah Junction
- 1st Movement
- 2nd Movement
- 3rd Movement
Anderson & Roe
Hallelujah Variations
(Variations on a Theme by Leonard Cohen)
John Lennon & Paul McCartney / Anderson & Roe
‘Let it Be’ from Let it Be
*** INTERMISSION ***
Leonard Bernstein / Anderson & Roe
West Side Story Suite
- Mambo
- Tonight
- Somewhere
- America
Christoph Willibald Gluck / Anderson & Roe
Ballet from Orphée et Eurydice
Georges Bizet / Anderson & Roe
Carmen Fantasy for Two Pianos
Anderson & Roe – Program Notes
Season Listing | Biography | Program | Program Notes
Pianists Greg Anderson and Elizabeth Joy Roe have chosen a program for Saturday, April 7, 2018’s Brown County Civic Music concert that includes many of the pieces they performed at their Kennedy Center debut in February.
Highlights of that critically acclaimed performance included the duo’s self-penned “Hallalujah Variations,” which will be the third selection of the program. Based on the famous theme by the late Leonard Cohen, the Anderson and Roe variation sets the tender melody against an intricate backdrop of harmonics and countermelodies.
In “Hallelujah Junction,” a 1996 composition for two pianos by American composer John Adams (a composition unrelated to the more famous Cohen music), the artists combine for a rhythmic soundscape, creating an effect of echoing sonorities.
Concluding the first half of the concert will be an Anderson and Roe interpretation of the Beatles’ classic “Let it Be,” with a take that has been described as bringing out jazz or gospel undertones of the melody.
The duo resumes after intermission with the moving, spirited and crowd-pleasing music of Leonard Bernstein’s “America.”
One of opera’s most beloved masterpieces, the elegant and emotional Ballet from Orphée et Eurydice, by the 18th century composer Christoph Willibald Gluck, will follow. Closing the program is more opera-inspired music, this time with Anderson & Roe’s treatment of Georges Bizet’s masterwork, with “Carmen Fantasy for Two Pianos.”
Rave reviews for Seraph
Here’s another reminder about our “make-up concert” at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, April 24, at West High School. (Use your tickets for the cancelled show for this one; if you’ve misplaced them, just check in at our Civic Music table in the lobby.) We’re hearing great things about that night’s artists, Seraph Brass. Snowbird friends who caught recent concerts in Florida tell us it’s an excellent show. The group just released its first album, Asteria. Learn more, and catch a preview.
Please join us for the post-concert reception
We’ll gather again at the Tap Room, Titletown Brewing Co., 200 Dousman St., following the Saturday, April 7, Anderson & Roe concert.
Correction to ‘Opera’ postcard
Florentine Opera Company, Sunday, June 10, 4-5:30 pm
As our postcard mailing last week instructed, anyone wishing to pay extra to reserve a close-in seat for Opera in the Garden, Sunday June 10th at the Green Bay Botanical Garden, should contact the Garden directly. Unfortunately, due to an error at the printers, an incorrect phone number was listed. The correct number is 920-490-9457. You may also order online at www.GBBG.org/Opera. The cost is $10 per seat. General admission – the ability to stake out your lawn location for your own lawn chair, camp chair or blanket – is free to all. (Civic Music members not purchasing the $10 reserved seats are invited to arrive as early as two hours before the 4 p.m. concert to claim prime locations, ahead of non-members.) Early arrivals might also find open benches and patio seating near the top of the amphitheatre hill.
