The
Division of Fine and Performing Arts
of
BIRMINGHAM-SOUTHERN COLLEGE
presents
with the
Winners of the Frances
and Dorsey Whittington
Competition
Hill Hall
Birmingham-Southern College
Sunday afternoon, 3:00 pm
February 16, 2003
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 22 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 many
physicians, a dentist, a physics professor, and several band teachers, most of
us studied our instruments 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 would like to take this
opportunity to thank those who have, over the years, given us the tools we
needed to survive and flourish: Birmingham-Southern
College, now the sheltering organization for the RMCO, 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
Council, 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 - and to you our
supporters, whose help makes all of these performances possible.
RMCO is honored to participate in this third annual presentation of the
Winners of Whittington Competition at Birmingham-Southern College, which
provides for BSC undergraduate music majors, chosen in a preliminary
competition, the opportunity to perform concertos and arias with orchestra. The competition is named for Frances and
Dorsey Whittington, whose profound influence as teachers became the musical
foundation for generations of Birmingham musicians. The Birmingham Conservatory of Music – now the Music Department at Birmingham-Southern College – was for
many years under their leadership.
Thanks
to the Fine Arts Council of Birmingham-Southern College for the reception in
the Blue Room following the performance.
Thomas Gibbs, Conductor
Program
Concerto in G Major, Maurice Ravel
for Piano and Orchestra 1875-1937
I.
Allegramente
Kathryn Elizabeth Smith, Piano
Symphony
No. 44, in E Minor ("Mourning") Joseph Haydn
Allegro con brio 1732-1809
Menuetto; Trio
Adagio
Presto
~~~ Intermission ~~~
Introduction, Theme, and Variations,
Gioacchino Rossini
for Clarinet and Orchestra 1792-1868
Nicole Aris Selvidge, Clarinet
Il mio tesoro Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
from Don Giovanni 1756-1791
Weston Don Parker, Tenor
Piano Concerto No. 3, in C minor, Op.37
III. Rondo:
Allegro
Ludwig van Beethoven
1770-1827
Myron D. Brown, Piano
Please join
us in the Blue Room
for a reception following the
concert.
Haydn
– Symphony # 44 in E minor - Trauersinfonie
Some
seventeen of Haydn’s symphonies date from the early 1770s, years in which the
form well and truly reached maturity in his hands. It was also the period in which a new profundity and tragic
seriousness entered his music and that of his contemporaries. This symphony’s nickname – Trauersinfonie
or ‘Mourning Symphony’ – seems for once to have been Haydn’s own, and it is
reported that he later requested that its slow movement be played at his
funeral. There is no attempt at a
funeral march in the symphony as such though, and the mourning conveys more a
sense of the anger of loss than quiet contemplation.
The
tense opening movement sums up Haydn’s Sturm und Drang style with its fierce
contrasts of dynamics, urgent 16th note passages and, towards the end, a brief
passage combining contrapuntal imitation with tonality-destabilizing
chromaticism.
Counterpoint
is again to the fore in the Minuet, a strict canon between upper and lower
strings. The brighter mood of the
major-key trio prepares the way for the Adagio, a movement which provides the
calm contemplation lacking in the first movement. The finale is one of Haydn’s most remarkable, a movement brimming
with nervous energy that is the embodiment of ‘storm and stress’.
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.
Please visit our web site at http://www.rmco.org/
Please
sign our registration book in the foyer so that we may keep you informed of
future RMCO concerts. Thanks.
First
Violin Gwen Knowlton Concertmaster Leslie Cheng James Farley Kimberly Ferguson Dawn Grant Heidi Kapanka William Neumeier Godehard Oepen Second
Violin Katrina Choate Principal Ilene Brill Jodi Haskins Larry Kallus David Sherman Charles Tharp Viola Suzanne Beaudry Principal Joanna Bosko Karen Eastman Marilyn Pipkin |
Cello Jackie McKinney Principal Eve Fingerett Daniel Hallmark Carol Leitner Dorinda Smith Diedre Vaughn Double
Bass Steve Lewis Principal Flute David Agresti Peggy Brooks Piccolo Peggy Brooks Oboe Lisa Buck Brian Van Tine English
Horn Lisa Buck |
Clarinet Ron Peters Barry Jackson Bassoon Jeremy Arthur Richard Murry Horn Ginny Carroll Robin Clemow Trumpet Paul Morton Dennis Carroll Trombone Robert Black Percussion Allen Higdon Dennis Carroll Timpani Danielle Brooks Harp Ellen Stanton |
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 |
Today's Conductor
Thomas Gibbs has been a member of
Birmingham-Southern's faculty of music since 1970, teaching a wide variety of
courses in music history, music literature, church music, and conducting. He also served for eight years as chair of
Birmingham-Southern's Division of Fine and Performing Arts.
At
Birmingham-Southern Dr. Gibbs has conducted more than fifteen productions for
the Opera Workshop and the College Theatre, most recently the world premiere of
Daphne at
Sea, by Charles Norman Mason and Sally Gall. His experience in opera
also includes extensive work for Opera Memphis, Birmingham Civic Opera, and
Cincinnati Opera. He was Birmingham
Summerfest's first music director, conducting some twenty-five Summerfest
musical productions.
Dr.
Gibbs served for ten years as the conductor of the Birmingham Concert Chorale
and choral director for the Alabama Symphony Orchestra. As Master of the Cathedral Choir at Birmingham's
Episcopal Cathedral of the Advent, Dr. Gibbs led the Choir in performances of
major church works, oratorios, masses, and a number of newly commissioned
compositions. He also conducted the
Choir in three performing tours of England.
He is currently serving as organist and choirmaster at Grace Episcopal
Church, Woodlawn.
Dr.
Gibbs is active as a choral clinician, adjudicator, and conducting teacher, and
he appears regularly as a conductor of the Red Mountain Chamber Orchestra.
Today's Soloists
KATY SMITH is from Hebron, Maryland. She began piano study at the age of 7. At Birmingham-Southern she is a junior
majoring in music, and she plans to pursue a career in arts administration. At
Birmingham-Southern she has studied with William DeVan, and she currently is a student of Ellen Tweiten. During the
January Interim Term, 2003, she participated in a three-week service-learning
project at St. Aloysius School in Harlem, New York City.
NICOLE SELVIDGE is a third-year candidate
for the Bachelor of Music degree in Clarinet Performance at Birmingham-Southern
College, where she holds an Instrumental Music Scholarship and a Presidential
Honors Scholarship. She currently studies with Judith Donaldson of the Alabama
Symphony Orchestra and has participated in master classes with Edwin Riley,
formerly of the Columbus Symphony Orchestra.
This is her first performance as a soloist with the Red Mountain Chamber
Orchestra, and she is grateful to the musicians of the orchestra for this
opportunity. She would also like to
thank her family and friends, her teacher, and the music faculty at
Birmingham-Southern for their support.
WES PARKER is from Hartselle, Alabama. He
began his collegiate studies in music at The University of Missippi and
continued at Alabama's Calhoun Community College where he was a student of Samuel
Timberlake. He has also studied with Cynthia Linton and Pam Miller. Now in his
second term at Birmingham-Southern College, Wes majors in Vocal Performance and
studies voice with David Smith. He has been active in community musical theatre
productions, sang in Carnegie Hall while still a high school student, and has
been a state finalist in the National Association of Teachers of Singing
competition. He plans to pursue a
career in opera and musical theatre.
MYRON D. BROWN is from Birmingham and a
sophomore majoring in Piano Performance. Now a student of William DeVan, he
previously studied with Nancy Wingard at the Birmingham-Southern College
Conservatory of Fine and Performing Arts. He is a four-time recipient of the
Conservatory's Hugh Thomas Scholarship, and he currently holds the Sarah and
Robert Flemister Scholarship at BSC
2002-2003 - 23nd Season of the RMCO
- www.rmco.org
October 20, 5:00 pm, Fall Concert, in the Sanctuary,
Bluff Park United Methodist Church (bpumc.org; 822-0910)
Robert Wright of the University of
Montevallo conducting
Schubert - Overture to Rosamunde D 644
Mozart -
Clarinet Concerto K 622 in A Major,
Lori Neprud-Ardovino, Clarinet Soloist
Gounod -
Symphony #1 in D Major
November 24, 3:00 pm, Fall
Concert
Homewood Public Library
(homewood.lib.al.us; 877-8661)
Howard
Goldstein, of Auburn University conducting
Ravel - Pavanne pour une infante défunte
Fauré - Masques et Bergamasques, Op. 112
Mozart - Symphonia Concertante in Eb Major, K. 364,
Dawn Grant,
Violin; Godehard Oepen, Viola
February 16, 3:00 pm,
Whittington Competition Winners
Hill Hall, Birmingham-Southern College (bsc.edu; 226-4950)
Thomas Gibbs of
Birmingham-Southern conducting
Dorsey Whittington Concerto/Aria Competition winners
will perform as soloists with the orchestra
April 6,
3:00 pm, A
"Suite" Concert, at St.
Stephens
Episcopal Church (bham.net/st_stephen; 967-8786)
Todd Norton of
Jefferson State College conducting
Grieg - Holberg Suite
Handel - Water Music
Respighi - Ancient Airs and Dances
May 11,
3:00 pm, Mother's Day
concert, in the Ireland Room,
Birmingham Botanical Gardens (bbgardens.org; 414-3961)
Music for small groups, by the Red Mountain Chamber Players
June 22, 3:00 pm, "Summer
Solstice," in the Steiner Auditorium
Birmingham Museum of Art (artsbma.org; 254-2571)
Music for small groups, by the Red Mountain Chamber Players
--- As always, admission is free ---