The Division of Fine and
Performing Arts
of
BIRMINGHAM-SOUTHERN
COLLEGE
presents
performing
Spring
Concert
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 |
 |
 |
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Heritage
Sanctuary
Hueytown
Methodist Church
110
Sunset Drive, Hueytown
Sunday Afternoon, 3:00 pm
April 28, 2002
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The
Red Mountain Chamber Orchestra
The Red Mountain Chamber Orchestra exists to
educate and give pleasure to the public by performing a repertoire of classical
music not otherwise heard in Birmingham, as well as to provide a musical outlet
for skilled players, conductors, and soloists, both professional and amateur,
in the community. Because of our
chamber orchestra size, we are able to move about the area, playing in
different venues each season, thereby reaching a more diverse audience and
addressing ourselves more clearly to the needs and interests of the community. Although completely independent as to
policies, the RMCO has for about a decade rehearsed and performed at
Birmingham-Southern College. We are
proud to be an adjunct of BSC's Division of Fine and Performing Arts.
Founded 21 years ago, with the first concert
on November 2, 1980, the orchestra has always been based in Birmingham,
although some of the players come in from outlying communities and we perform
at least once a season outside the city.
With ages ranging from 15 to 80, the most veteran of us played in the
Birmingham Civic Symphony, the youngest are students. All of us are bound together by a passion that leads us to work
on concert materials well before rehearsals for the sake of the music. Although
we include physicians, a dentist, a physics professor, and several band
teachers, most of us studied our instrument seriously in university music
departments and at conservatories before finding other sources of daily
income.
We exist as a musical force because of the
support of many who like what we do. We
take this opportunity to thank those who have, over the years, given us the
tools we needed to survive and flourish:
Birmingham-Southern College, Samford University, and the Unitarian
Church, all of whom have given the orchestra a home base across the years for
rehearsals and performances; the
Alabama State Council on the Arts, the Birmingham Regional Arts Commission, and
the private donors who have provided financial support; area churches, libraries, and schools who
have allowed us rehearsal and performance space, especially the Birmingham
Botanical Gardens and the Birmingham Museum of Art; and all of the conductors, soloists, and players who have given
freely of their time and talents to work with this orchestra.
Special thanks to the Alabama State Council on the Arts and the Birmingham Regional Arts Council for financial help with this concert. Thanks also to Frances Gilmore, Head of the Fine Arts Committee, and to Norma Jean Morton for assistance at the church in planning the concert, and to Hueytown Methodist Church for publicity, rehearsal and performance space. As always, thanks to you our supporters, whose help makes all of these performances possible.
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Howard Goldstein, Conductor
PROGRAM
Overture to L'Italiana in
Algeri (1813) Gioacchino Rossini
Andante 1792-1868
Allegro
Concerto Grosso in A Major, George Frideric Handel
Op.
6, No. 11 (1739) 1685-1759
Andante larghetto e staccato
Allegro
Largo e staccato; Andante
Allegro
Concertino
Gwen Knowlton and Dawn
Grant, Violin
Carol Leitner, Violoncello
Czech Suite, Op. 39 (1879) Antonín Dvořák
Preludium (Pastorale) 1841-1904
Polka
Sousedská (Minuetto)
Romance
Finale (Furiant)
Please
sign our registration book in the foyer so that we may keep you informed of
future RMCO concerts. Thanks.
Please visit our web site at http://www.rmco.org/
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ROSSINI: Overture to "L'italiana in
Algeri"
Rossini may have been the fastest working
composer in history. In May 1813, he wrote this opera in only 20 days, after
the previously contracted composer skipped town. It was a great opportunity for
the 21-year old newcomer and a huge success at its Venice premiere. It
established Rossini's trademark comic style of bubbling vitality, melodic
abundance, and detailed musical characterization. The overture captures
perfectly the high spirits of the farcical plot, in which a Italian girl
searches the world for her lost lover, is abducted by a Turkish tyrant, finds
that her lover is a slave at the tyrant's court (!), and proceeds to not only
rescue her lover but reconcile the tyrant and his estranged wife!
HANDEL:
Concerto
Grosso in A Major, Op. 6, No. 11
One
of the oldest forms of orchestral music is the concerto, which was developed in
the early 1700s primarily by Italian composers Corelli and Vivaldi, and which
pits one or more soloists against a larger orchestra. Although the solo
concerto is more popular today, the concerto grosso (big concerto) for a small
group of soloists (in Italian, concertino) was more important in the concerto's
early history. Handel's 1739 set of twelve concerti grossi were published in
London in 1740. He wrote them in a month's time, intending them as interludes
to be played during performances of his theatrical works, but he also expected
them to be performed at the ever increasing number of public orchestral
concerts in London. The concertino consists of two violins and a ‘cello. In
this concerto their virtuosity is tested most brilliantly in the third
movement. The first two movements are typically French in their dotted rhythms
and fugal texture, while the last is a bumptious peasant dance.
DVORÁK: Czech Suite, Op. 39
The
suite is also an early form of orchestral music, consisting originally of short
dance movements to which quieter, more lyrical movements were added later.
Dvořák's Czech Suite, composed in April 1879, and premiered the following month
in Prague, adds a further element of Czech nationalism. During Dvořák's
lifetime, the Czech-speaking lands were part of the Austrian Empire. Music
based on Czech folk music played an important part in forging a Czech national
identity during the late nineteenth century, when the demands for a separate
Czech nation intensified. (By the way, two generations of Czech musicians named
Cadek played important roles in the musical life of Birmingham, Tuscaloosa, and
Chattanooga.) Czech dances heard in this suite include the Polka, Sousedská (a
rustic minuet), and the fiery Furiant, with its bracing use of cross rhythms.
The non-dance movements are the quietly evocative Preludium, with its bagpipe-like
drones, and the operatic Romance, which features the mellow tones of the
English Horn. Although this work is scored for a small orchestra, Dvořák
achieves variety of tone color by using different groups of winds and brass in
each movement, and by saving the trumpets and tympani until the last movement.
Program notes by Howard
Goldstein
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Our soloists
The
Concertino for today's performance of Handel's Concerto Grosso is comprised of
Gwen Knowlton, Dawn Grant, and Carol Leitner. Gwen Knowlton began violin at age 10
and has continued to play in orchestras while she has pursued her career as a
Registered Nurse. Currently working as
a nurse at the Kirklin Clinic, she has played in the Red Mountain Chamber
Orchestra for 15 years. Dawn Grant is also a nurse with a
passion for playing violin, having come to Birmingham and joining the RMCO just
this past year. Previous playing
experience includes such noted organizations as the Atlanta Symphony and the
Alabama Shakespeare Festival. Carol Leitner has played cello since
age 8, joining the RMCO in 1999. A
general surgeon by profession, she performs regularly for local church services
and in small chamber ensembles with her oboist son, Bryce Roberts. They also provide music for healing and
transition for the patients of the Greater Birmingham Hospice Association. Together with the other health professionals
in the RMCO, today's concertino players are known as "The Medical Maestros."
Our Conductor
Howard Goldstein is
an Associate Professor of Music at Auburn University, where he teaches music
history and violin, and is Music Director of the Auburn University/Community
Orchestra. He is also the Assistant
Conductor of the Columbus Symphony Orchestra.
A native of Los Angeles, he received his early musical education there,
eventually receiving a degree from the University of California, Los Angeles,
where he studied violin with Alexander Treger and conducting with Samuel
Krachmalnick. After studies in
historical musicology at Columbia University, where he served as Assistant
Conductor of the Columbia University Orchestra, he studied conducting with
Frederik Prausnitz at the Peabody Conservatory and served as his assistant, and
received Master's and Doctoral degrees in Orchestral Conducting. He also studied with Hans Beer at the
University of Southern California, Milan Horvat at the Salzburg Mozarteum
Sommerakademie, and Harold Farberman at the Conductor's Institute. He has conducted orchestras in New York,
Baltimore, and the Czech Republic and is a regular guest with the Red Mountain
Chamber Orchestra in Birmingham, Alabama.
His articles on musical theatre appear in the New Grove's Dictionary of
Music, Revised Edition.
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THE RED MOUNTAIN
CHAMBER ORCHESTRA PLAYERS
|
First Violin Gwen Knowlton Concertmaster Susan Dean Kimberly Ferguson Heidi Kapanka Godehard Oepen Marilyn Pipkin Second Violin Dawn
Grant Principal Ilene Brill Katie Cruce Charles Tharp Viola Suzanne Beaudry Principal Karen Eastman Marilyn Pipkin |
Cello Carol
Leitner Principal Daniel Hallmark Dorinda Smith Diedre Vaughn Sandra Wesemann Double Bass Steve Lewis Principal Flute David Agresti Don Gilliland Oboe Lisa Buck Brian Van Tine English Horn Bryce
Roberts |
Clarinet Ron Peters Barry Jackson Bassoon Jeremy Arthur Horn Ginny Carroll John Greer Trumpet Paul Morton Dennis Carroll Timpani Danielle Brown Harpsichord Suzanne Beaudry |
RMCO
Administration & Board
|
President Suzanne Beaudry Vice President Barry Jackson Recording Secretary Peggy Brooks Corresponding Secretary Gwen Knowlton Treasurer Kendall Holman Librarian Kimberly Ferguson Programs David Agresti Historian Rita Salzberg Founder Robert Markush |
Consultants Leslie Fillmer, Oliver Roosevelt Stage Managers, Web Masters Charles Tharp, Daniel Hallmark Personnel Winds John Greer Strings Godehard Oepen Members-at-Large Linda Mahan, Heidi Kapanka |
Did you enjoy today's
program?
Contributions are much
needed by the Red Mountaineers for
the purchase/rental of music and other expenses. A cash contribution would be appreciated. If you have questions, call Suzanne Beaudry
at 254-3774. We qualify as a non-profit
organization under Chapter 401-C.
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2001-2002 -
22nd Season of the RMCO
October 21, 3:00 pm, Fall Concert
Sanctuary, Canterbury Methodist Church (871-4695)
Peter Warlock - Capriol Suite for strings
Mozart - Symphony #29 in A Major, K 201
Wanhal - Viola Concerto in F Major, with Michael Kimber
Robert Wright of the University of Montevallo, conducting
December 4, 5:30 pm, Christmas Tree Lighting Ceremony
Linn Park, Birmingham City Center
Leroy Anderson - Sleigh Ride
Vaughan Williams - Fantasia on Greensleeves
Niels Gade - Christmas Suite
Todd Norton of Jefferson State Community College, conducting
February 17, 3:00 pm, Dorsey Whittington
Concerto/Aria Competition Winners
Hill Hall, Birmingham-Southern College
The competition winners will solo with the orchestra.
Thomas Gibbs of Birmingham Southern College, conducting
April 28, 3:00 pm, Spring Concert
Hueytown Methodist Church, 110 Sunset Drive
Rossini - Overture to L'Italiana in Algeri
Handel - Concerto Grosso in A Major, Op. 6, No. 11
Dvořák - Czech Suite, Op. 39
Howard Goldstein of Auburn University, conducting
May 12, 3:00 pm, Mother's Day Concert
Ireland Room, Birmingham Botanical Gardens
Handel - Concerto Grosso in A Major, Op. 6, No. 11
Haydn - Flute Quartet No. 5 in D Major, Opus 5, No. 5
Bartok - Violin Duos, with H. Goldstein and G. Knowlton
June 23, 3:00 pm, Summer Solstice
Steiner Auditorium, Birmingham Museum of Art
A concert of small ensemble works
--- As always, admission is free ---