PRESENTS

BEETHOVEN SPECTACULAR

SATURDAY, DECEMBER 12, 2020

3 PM PACIFIC TIME/6 PM EASTERN TIME

MIDNIGHT IN BONN, GERMANY

BEETHOVEN SPECTACULAR

SATURDAY, DECEMBER 12, 2020 AT 3:00 PM PT

Richard Derby (ASCAP) Owed to Beethoven Performed by Richard Derby

Bruce Broughton (ASCAP) “Kannst du mich noch hören?” Susanne Kessel, piano

York Holler Susanne Kessel, piano

Ian Wiese (ASCAP) “The Mazurka – Re-Imagined.” Ziang Xu, piano

Deon Price (ASCAP) Ludwig’s Letter to Immortal Beloved Darryl Taylor, counter-tenor; Deon Price, piano

Matthew Hetz (ASCAP) L van B Variations Remix Matthew Hetz, piano

Alex Shapiro (ASCAP) Chord History Susanne Kessel, piano

Greg Steinke (ASCAP) Sonata for Oboe, Oboe d’Amore and English Horn

David Raiklen (ASCAP) Vocalise on Themes of Beethoven

Katherine Saxon, soprano, David Raiklen, piano

Adrienne Albert (ASCAP) Homage to B7 Susanne Kessel, piano

Encore – A Surprise!

Richard Derby

Richard Derby (ASCAP) has a Ph.D. in music composition from the University of California Santa Barbara. In 1977-78 he held a Fulbright Fellowship to study composition with Justin Connolly at the Royal College of Music in London. In 1982 his article "Elliott Carter's 'Duo for Violin and Piano' " was published in Perspectives of New Music. A CD of his chamber music on Cambria Master Recordings is available from Southwest Chamber Music (swmusic.org). Richard is currently the vice president of the Los Angeles chapter of the National Association of Composers USA (NACUSA). Recordings of Richard’s music are posted on soundcloud.com/richardderby. Richard's website is at richardderbycomposer.com.

Owed to Beethoven was written for NACUSA-LA’s Beethoven Spectacular celebration. It combines the well-known “Ode to Joy” theme from Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony with the equally well-known “happy birthday to you” tune.

Hey, y’all, it’s Beethoven’s birthday! Let’s all celebrate The Man. He’s the best, the great composer, Writing tunes like no one can.

‘Course, we’ll have to “social distance;” That’s too bad, but what the hey? We’ll perform our own, new music And pay tribute anyway.

Happy birthday to you, Happy birthday to you, Happy birthday, Beethoven, Happy birthday to you.

Bruce Broughton

Bruce Broughton is best known for his many film scores, for which he has been awarded a record 10 Emmys, one Oscar nomination (Silverado) and one Grammy nomination (Young Sherlock Holmes). As a concert composer, ensembles such as the Cleveland Orchestra, the Chicago Symphony, the National Symphony and the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra have performed his compositions. His works for wind ensembles, bands and chamber groups have been performed and recorded throughout the world. He is a board member of ASCAP, a former governor of both the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences and the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, as well as a past president and founding member of The Society of Composers and Lyricists.

Bruce Broughton about his piano piece “Kannst du mich noch hören?” “By the time Beethoven composed his Symphony No. 5, the majority of his hearing was gone. “Kannst du mich noch hören?” refers to the state of the composer’s hearing as he composed this very famous piece between the years 1804 and 1808. As Beethoven composed the symphony, he heard less and less of it clearly. The piece begins softly, but energetically, referring to the famous opening motif and continues to get louder and louder using other motifs in the symphony as if someone were shouting to a deaf person in order to be heard. This short piece is meant to portray some of the frustration the composer felt as he worked his way to the end of his career in increasing silence, eventually not being able to hear anything other than the sounds in his mind.”

York Höller

Between 1963 and 1970, York Höller studied composition with Bernd Alois Zimmermann, electronics with Herbert Eimert, piano and conducting at the Cologne Musikhochschule, and philosophy and musicology at the University of Cologne. He participated in the 1965 Ferienkurse at Darmstadt, and soon became established as one of the most promising German composers of his generation. He was invited by Karlheinz Stockhausen to work at the electronic studio of the WDR (West German Radio) in Cologne from 1971-72, and has subsequently been appointed director of the studio as a successor to Stockhausen. The commissioning of Arcus for the Ensemble InterContemporain in 1978 launched Höller’s particular association with the French musical world. The technology at IRCAM offered Höller the opportunity to write a score which explored he integration of live and electronically processed sound. The success of Arcus, performed throughout Europe and in the USA, led to a second EIC commission, Resonance, and to a sequence of compositions achieving an impressive synthesis of acoustic and electronic mediums. The 1980s also saw the composition of a number of purely acoustic pieces, including Piano Concerto No.1, written for Peter Donohoe and the BBC Symphony Orchestra and performed in Paris with Daniel Barenboim as soloist. The orchestral work Magische Klanggestalt has been played extensively throughout Europe, including tours to Scandinavia, Russia and Poland, by the Hamburg Philharmonic under Hans Zender, and the Berlin Philharmonic under Barenboim. Höller’s opera Der Meister und Margarita (1984-89), a setting of Bulgakov’s novel, was premiered at the Paris Opera, produced by Hans Neuenfels and conducted by Lothar Zagrosek. The work was subsequently staged by the Cologne Opera, and the composer has extracted a suite for soprano, orchestra, and tape, entitled Margaritas Traum. A recording of the Cologne production was released on Col Legno in 2000.

Ian Wiese

Bio: A “captivating mix of busy and sparse” according to Boston Musical Intelligencer, Ian Wiese is a multi-faceted composer based out of Quincy, MA. Performers including loadbang, Imani Winds, Box Not Found, Kalliope Reed Quintet, and Sputter Box have played his music. Recently, Wiese was awarded prizes in the 2020 Mu Phi Epsilon International Convention Call for Scores, the Mu Phi Epsilon 2020 Musicological Research Competition, the 2019 Mu Phi Epsilon Original Composition Competition, the Ball State University Xenharmonic Music Alliance Call for Scores, and the Ithaca College Jack Downey Vocal Composition Prize, among others. He is currently working on commissions and collaborations with Sputter Box, trombonist Justin Croushore, and trumpeter Daniel Venglar. Some of his music has been heard in unusual venues, including EPCOT Center at The Walt Disney World Resort in Orlando, FL. He studies at New England Conservatory for his DMA in Composition with composer John Heiss. https://ianwiese.com/ Program notes: Two Mazurkas was written for the second collaboration between the studio of Victor Rosenbaum and the New England Conservatory Composition Department. This collaboration was titled “The Mazurka – Re-Imagined.” The first of the two mazurkas, titled “Slightly More than a Little Tipsy,” (not heard on this program) imitates a pianist drunk at the piano trying to play music that sounds good but is not lining up properly most of the time. Strange combinations of rhythms play into a drunken stupor, capped off with a non-sequitur quotation from Beethoven’s “Fur Elise.” The second, titled “After Beethoven,” is a pastiche on the second movement of Beethoven’s Symphony No. 7 in A minor. I had the unusual idea that the world-renown second movement could possibly work as a mazurka, and after tinkering with it for a few hours I found that with the right choices it could. Also pay attention for a brief intrusion by Philip Glass! Performer: Ziang Xu (will provide his bio when he wishes to send me it)

Deon Price

Title : Ludwig’s Letter to Immortal Beloved. Duration 10 minutes Darryl Taylor, countertenor Deon Nielsen Price, piano Deon Nielsen Price, D.M.A., (ASCAP) Composer in Residence and Curator for Sunday th Concerts(now in 4 season) for the Interfaith Center at the Presidio. Current projects include composing a symphony, establishing an online audio library of live performances of her works, and preparing for post-Covid opportunities to record orchestral version of song cycle Ludwig’s Letter to Immortal Beloved; and oratorio CHRISTUS for choir, orchestra, soloists, and narrator.

I have been excited to set Beethoven’s own words from Beahrs literal English translation of his love letter found on 10 small pieces of paper written in pencil July 6-7, 1812. (Text of “Beethoven's Immortal Beloved” letter, English translation by Virginia Beahrs, The Beethoven Newsletter, Vol V, no. 2, 1990, San Jose State University, California, extracted and adapted by Deon Nielsen Price, used by permission. )

The music is inspired by Beethoven’s cycle for voice and piano, An die Ferne Geliebte, (To the Distant Beloved) Op. 98, composed in April 1816, setting of six poems by Alois Jeitteles, the first known song cycle by a major composer. Those songs were well in my inner ear because I had performed the cycle often with baritone Dale Morich in the late 1970’s throughout Southern California, including on one of my doctoral recitals at the University of Southern California. Ludwig’s Letter to Immortal Beloved, composed in a quasi Beethoven style in October, 2020, is modeled after Beethoven’s cycle with 6 continuous songs (although shorter to fit the 10-minute limit), includes some of his themes and accompaniment patterns, and employs his unique technique in one song where the piano accompaniment transitions to the next song under a long sustained tone in the vocal line.

Song #1 Good Morning! Still in bed am I, Good morning! Thoughts toward you, my eternal beloved Now and then happy, then again sad, Awaiting fate, if fate will grant us favorable hearing – I can only either be wholly with you or not at all.

Song #2 My Angel Oh, my angel, my all, Can our love exist but by sacrifice? You are not completely mine, I am not completely yours – O God Why have to separate oneself, what one loves so... Your love makes me most happy and most unhappy at once...

Song #3 You Suffer You are suffering – Oh, wherever I am, you are with me, Oh, that I can live with you, What a life!!! As it is !!! Without you— ... Oh, it pains me –

Song #4 The Firmament When I see myself in framework of the universe What am I What is He - whom one calls Greatest – and yet – herein is the divine spark of man – I weep ...As much as you love me– I love you even more deeply ... Our love is a heavenly edifice–firm like the firmament...

Song #5 Resolved I have resolved to stray about until I can fly into your arms entirely at home with you, Send my soul embraced by you into the realm of spirits -... Never can another own my heart, never, never–

Song #6 Be Calm Look upon nature, calm your soul over what must be. O be calm, only through quiet contemplation can we reach our goal to live together— Be patient – love me – today – yesterday – What longing with Tears for you You – you my love – my all – O continue to love me – Forever yours, Forever mine, Forever ours!

Matthew Hetz Matthew Hetz, a Los Angeles native, began piano lessons at age 16 whose primary teachers were Marlene Kendall and Howard Weisel, both students of Jakob Gimpel. He began playing the violin at age 23-he is primarily self-taught. Hetz studied composition with former NACUSA President Marshall Bialovsky at Cal State Dominguez Hills, from which he graduate Cum Laude. His works have been performed throughout Los Angeles and nationwide, including Hetz performing his piano works at NACUSA concerts at Hollywood Piano Company, Burbank; and Steinway Piano Gallery, Beverly Hills.

Hetz is an instructor at Emeritus/Santa Monica College. He is past president/executive director of the Culver City Symphony Orchestra/Marina del Rey Symphony, and also plays in the orchestra. He is an environmental and mass transit advocate.

L van B Variations / Remix

My composition teacher at Cal State Dominguez Hills, Marshall Bialosky, introduced me to the Beethoven Piano Sonata, Opus 31, No. 3 (1801-02). It took me a while to understand why. Marshall, a past president of NACUSA, was trying to teach me that even though I was at the time, and remain, a basically tonally based composer, not all works begin in the tonic, in root position. This sonata remains one of my favorites for the lesson, and it illustrates the greatness of Beethoven’s grasp of harmony, form and structure, and the beauties and tensions in the work.

The variations are very free form. I used only the first eight measures, and concentrated on the first six, but did not use the standard variation form measure for measure. I did, however, use only the notes, or pitches, found in those eight measures. Matthew Hetz Los Angeles October 30, 2020

Alex Shapiro

Alex Shapiro (b. NYC, 1962) aligns note after note with the hope that at least a few of them will actually sound good next to each other. Her persistence at this activity, as well as non-fiction writing, public speaking, arts advocacy, wildlife photography, and the shameless instigation of insufferable puns on Facebook, has led to a happy life. Alex's extensive catalog is published by Activist Music LLC, performed and broadcast daily, and can be heard on over thirty commercial releases from record labels around the world. Her 2020 Innova Recordings album ARCANA features New York pianist Adam Marks performing Alex's complete solo piano works. Ms. Shapiro is the Symphonic & Concert writer on the Board of Directors of ASCAP, and serves on the boards of The ASCAP Foundation and The Aaron Copland Fund for Music. She is a former board member of The American Music Center, the American Composers Forum of Los Angeles, The MacDowell Colony, and The Society of Composers & Lyricists. Relocating from Manhattan to Los Angeles in 1983, in 2007 Alex traded the traffic and wildfires of Malibu for the ferries and wildlife of Washington’s remote San Juan Island, as seen via her camera lens throughout her website, www.alexshapiro.org.

PROGRAM NOTE for CHORD HISTORY: My friend, the superb pianist Susanne Kessel, shares something significant with one of our mutual muses, Ludwig van Beethoven: they both hail from Bonn, Germany. Eyeing the upcoming occasion of Beethoven's 250th birth year in 2020, Susanne devised a beautiful plan: to shepherd 250 short new pieces of music into the world in the composer's honor, from the hearts of artists who would happily consider themselves among his protégés. If only Beethoven could know the enduring power of his legacy. So what better way to compose an homage to this giant, than to ask the devoted pianist for whom I was writing the piece what some of her favorite Beethoven piano chords might be? I knew the answer to mine: the iconic, imposing, foreboding, C minor start to Sonata No. 8, Opus 13, the "Pathéthique." My teenage hands passionately played each phrase thousands of times, and while poor Ludwig might have been rolling over in his grave (there's a good reason I chose to compose rather than perform), the influence of his music in my life has been monumental. Susanne submitted several fine suggestions, which are found throughout my little offering. And thus Beethoven, Kessel, and Shapiro, have become bound for a brief and touching moment in this CHORD HISTORY.

Greg Steinke

Dr. Greg A Steinke is retired, former Joseph Naumes Endowed Chair of Music/Art and Associate Dean of Undergraduate Studies, Marylhurst University, Marylhurst, Oregon; Associate Director, Ernest Bloch Music Festival (‘93–97) and Director, Composers Symposium (‘90–97) (Newport, OR); served as the National Chairman of the Society of Composers, Inc. (1988–97). Composer of chamber and symphonic music and author with published/recorded works and performances across the U. S. and internationally; speaker on interdisciplinary arts, and oboist specializing in contemporary music. Dr. Steinke is a past national president of NACUSA (2012-19) and also currently serves on the NACUSA Cascadia Chapter Board.

Presentation script for Sonata for Oboe, Oboe d’Amore & EH:

Sonata for Oboe, Oboe d’Amore and English Horn is an early chamber work written toward the end of my undergraduate years; and it tracks, from the formal standpoint, the Beethoven Trio in C Major for Two Oboes and English Horn, Op. 87 in having the usual four movements for a sonata that was rather standard for sonatas of the classical period. What is unusual here is that the scherzo- trio and slow movements are reversed as I was also studying a Mozart string quartet at the time in theory class that had that movement arrangement, and I thought it was kind of “cool” to do that. (And my comp teacher thought so too!) However, the tonal harmonic language that I used is very much of the twentieth century, and I was very much into Bartok at the time, and so knowing that Bartok had his Beethovenian tendencies, it seemed logical to take it one step further and have a Beethovenian/Bartok influence to carry things a little further. In addition I tended to preserve the general tonal relationships that are usually embodied in a sonata of the classical period. The movements follow as Allegro giocoso; Scherzo; Adagio; Presto e animato (as a kind of quasi rondo.

David Raiklen

David Raiklen: American composer, producer, educator, and host. David was mentored by Oscar winner John Williams and Pulitzer Prize winner Mel Powel. Dr. Raiklen studied at USC and CalArts and later taught at those universities. He has worked for the major studios including Sony, Fox, Disney, Sprint, Mattel, Warner Bros and PBS, plus many independent productions. His projects have starred Elliott Gould, Doug Jones, Blythe Danner, and Martin Sheen. David made the New York Film Critics Top Ten with the documentary Heist, the short list for an Academy Award® for Worth, and Mia, A Dancer's Journey won the Emmy. Skilled in a variety of 21st-century compositional idioms, Raiklen’s most familiar style is a cinematic hybrid of neoromanticism and minimalism. He works with live, acoustic musicians on almost all his recordings and concerts, plus electronics. David is inspired by the beauty and peace of nature and is a lifelong conservationist. Raiklen compositions have been performed at the Hollywood Bowl and Disney Hall. He also was host of a successful radio program, Classical Fan Club, where guests include Yo-Yo Ma and John Williams; and is host and leader of The Academy of Scoring Arts seminars, and the National Association of Composers Conversations. David is currently producing and composing for Space Command, a series of epic adventures set in a hopeful future, live concerts, music videos, and producing Augmented Reality experiences. He is musicalizing the history of the universe in a series of works based on astronomical imaging and cosmology, titled Universe. Vocalise on Themes of Beethoven dur - 4:30 David Raiklen ASCAP Vocalist: Katherine Saxon

Beethoven is a lifelong inspiration and perhaps my first major influence, when I was 2. His epoch-making sense of rhythm, melody, form, and the highest aspirations of music are key to my own aesthetics. When virtuoso pianist Susanne Kessel approached my about creating a short piano piece for her monumental “250 piano pieces for Beethoven” I immediately said yes. I wrote a New Bagatelle that explored the dramatic and humorous aspects of the great master in a modern setting. Yet that wasn’t enough to properly honor a 250th Anniversary. So I created 2 addition movements, my own humble arrangements of rare treasures, the Andante Favori for Piano and Adagio for Mandolin. I love the lyrical melodies and took the gentle, exalted beauty and serious struggle to heart. The originals are longer more dramatic works, I chose to see the simple grace and direct expression. I transformed them into vocalise that hopefully show that Ludwig could create beautiful timeless singable melodies. Streamlined and updated a touch.

Adrienne Albert (ASCAP)

Award-winning composer Adrienne Albert (ASCAP) has had her chamber, choral, vocal, orchestral and wind band works performed throughout the U.S., and across the globe. Having previously worked as a singer with composers Igor Stravinsky, Leonard Bernstein, Philip Glass, and Gunther Schuller among many others, Albert began composing her own music in the 1990s. Her music has been supported by noteworthy arts organizations including the National Endowment for the Arts, American Composers Forum, MTC/Rockefeller Foundation, Subito Awards, MPE Fraternity and Foundation, ACME, and ASCAP. Recent commissions include works for The Cornell University Chorus, Harvard-Westlake School, Holyoke Civic Symphony, Mu Phi Epsilon Foundation, Palisades Virtuosi, Zinkali Trio, Pennsylvania Academy of Music, Chamber Music Palisades, Pacific Serenades as well as private individuals. A graduate of UCLA, Albert studied composition privately with Stephen Mosko, and orchestration with Albert Harris. Her music has been recorded on MSR, Naxos, Navona, Parma, Centaur, Little Piper, Albany, and ABC Records and is published by Kenter Canyon Music (ASCAP). Her music is self- published by Kenter Canyon Music (ASCAP) and can also be found through Theodore Front Musical Literature, Falls House Press, FluteWorld, and Trevco-Varner Music. For more information, please visit: www.adriennealbert.com.

Homage to B7: When the wonderful pianist, Susanne Kessel, approached me to compose a short work for her extraordinary project, 250 Piano Pieces for Beethoven, I was honored and wondered what could I possibly compose that could, in any way, speak about the greatest composer of all. After several months of revisiting some of my favorite Beethoven works from the Moonlight Sonata to his last string quartets, I finally chose to compose a piano work based on the most beautiful movement of his 7th Symphony, the Allegretto, a work that brings tears to my eyes every time I hear it performed. Hence, Homage to B7. It is said that at the première of his 7th symphony, Beethoven remarked that it was one of his best works. I think most audiences would agree. Susanne Kessel has performed this work numerous times in Germany and beyond.

Encore

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Susanne Kessel

Susanne Kessel, born and living in Bonn (Germany) is well known for unusual concert and CD programs with high personal involvement. Her numerous solo CDs have been highly acclaimed by the international press. She plays concerts in Europe and in the USA. In addition to this she initiates and organizes concert and international composition-projects. She studied at the Musikhochschule Köln with Pi-hsien Chen. Great personalities such as Aloys Kontarsky and Peter Feuchtwanger promoted her piano playing at an early stage. In 1993, Susanne Kessel was a prizewinner of the International Schubert Competition. Other prizes followed quickly. She plays the classical piano repertoire as well as contemporary piano literature of the 20th and 21st Century. She has given hundreds of premieres of piano works which have been dedicated to her or which she has herself proposed. She also played the piano music for several motion pictures and short films. Susanne Kessel teaches a private piano class in Bonn and is a jury member of several competitions for young musicians.

Susanne Kessel is the organizer and pianist of the extraordinary international composition project "250 piano pieces for Beethoven", which she created and has carried through calling 250 composers world-wide to compose short works based on the works of Beethoven. She has published 10 volumes of 25 works each which has become a great tribute to the 250th birthday celebration of Ludwig van Beethoven. For more information, please visit: www.250-piano-pieces-for-Beethoven.com

Countertenor Darryl Taylor's international career is highlighted by performance of art song, opera and oratorio. Recent highlights include singing the title role in Phillip Glass' Akhnaten for Long Beach Opera; L.A. Opera's groundbreaking production of Dido and Aeneas; Pergolesi and Vivaldi Stabat Mater with Lyra Baroque Orchestra of St. Paul, Minnesota; performances with the Carmel Bach Festival; the Bach Collegium San Diego; and performances at New York's Carnegie Hall, Havana, Cuba, and Shanghai, China. Founder of the African American Art Song Alliance, his recordings on Naxos and Albany record labels have received lavish praise. Love Rejoices: Songs of H. Leslie Adams was a Number One Critic's Choice for American Record Guide in 2001. Complete Solo Cantatas by Rosanna Scalfi Marcello (Naxos Records) was named a Critics Choice by Opera News Magazine. Dr. Taylor is Chair of the Vocal Department at University of California Irvine.