The NIHCO Board of Directors Harold Seifried President The NIH Community Orchestra Timothy Doerr Vice President and Robin Petrusak Treasurer The NIH Community Chorus Nancy Henderson Secretary present Liane Toohey Communications With thanks to Gary Daum, Founding Music Director Eileen (Teddi) Pensinger, Publicity and Outreach Maria Barragan Santana, Membership and Publicity Sara Kane, Program Design and Coordination Karin Caifa, Reception Coordination Jeff Beer and John Pensinger, Front of House The NIH R&W Staff The NIHCO Brass Ensemble Saint Mark Presbyterian Church Cedar Lane Unitarian Universalist Church And to our generous donors Freda Balkan Karin Caifa Gary Daum Timothy Doerr A Winter Fantasy Cheryl Fisher featuring music from the British Isles Nancy Henderson and Ivars Peterson Nancy Jakubowski December 10, 2016 Henry B. and Jessie W. Keiser Foundation, Inc. JoAnn Lynn Janet Mahaney Cedar Lane Unitarian Universalist Church Clifford Schweinfest Bethesda, MD The NIH Community OrchestraJohn is supported Warshawsky in part by funding from the Montgomery County government and the Arts and Humanities Council of Montgomery County The NIH Community Orchestra Music Director and Conductor, Richard Scerbo About the NIH Musical Organizations Assistant Conductor, Philip Espe The NIH Community Orchestra (NIHCO) is an all- Violin I Ivars Peterson Ed Kaita volunteer organization founded in the fall of 1996 for the Heather MacArthur, Elena Thompson Carole Read Concertmaster purpose of bringing together the musical talent of NIH Cello Bass Clarinet and the surrounding community. Since then, the orchestra Tom Holzman Jenna Johnson David Berley Ed Kaita has played music spanning six centuries, and is now a Carolyn Carroll Jakub Kostal Bassoon regular participant in the arts community of Montgomery Cheryl Fisher Sacha de Lange Steve Wechsler County. Serri Graslie Karin Peeters Keli Edwards Nancy Jakubowsky The group presents three concerts a year (two with the NIH Ellen Snyder Rachel Willingham Liane Toohey Erin McGown Community Chorus), as well as a number of outreach French Horn Ashley Valentine Tom Zebowitz performances. Donations collected at today's concert Doug Fox Bass benefit NIH charities, including the Children’s Inn at NIH, Violin II Steve Heilberg Fred Talcott Friends of the Clinical Center, the Patient Emergency Fund, Freda Balkan Stan Kusnetz and Special Love, Inc./Camp Fantastic, which provides a Maria Barragan Santana Flute Harold Seifried week-long summer camp and may other programs for Candy Cheung Ellen Ensel Alyson Williams children and young adults with cancer and their families. Stephanie Dailey Nancy Henderson Trumpet Moyna Daley Sara Kane Jon Gang For more information, please visit our website at Kristi Johnson Piccolo Ken Nolan www.nihco.org. Leslie Klein Ellen Ensel Cliff Schweinfest Basil Manns The NIH Community Chorus (NIHCC) was also founded Kenneth Mirkin Oboe Trombone in 1996, when the Bethesda Little Theatre began its Anthea Piong Katie Kane Brian Albrecht collaboration with the NIHCO to perform a sing-along of Emily Storch Daryl Kaufman Allan Bowling Handel’s Messiah. Since then, the all-volunteer chorus has Karen Weinstein Jo Ann Lynn Steve Ferguson participated in 17 sing-along Messiahs, as well as other Caitlin Williams Robin Petrusak Kevin Flynn concerts with the NIHCO, including the Holiday Concert Barbara Zain Liz Townsend last December and Howard Hanson’s Song of Democracy Tuba last June. Viola English Horn Dale Kiesewetter Timothy Doerr Robin Petrusak The NIHCC welcomes singers in all voice parts. For Percussion Clara Fisher more information, please visit our website at Clarinet Caitlin Williams Jack Karsten www.nihco.org. Karin Caifa Lee Rucker Keiser Harp Michelle Escumbise Cover: Christmas Eve in the Village Pamela Klein Melanie Young Stanley Cooke The NIH Community Chorus Music Director, W. Robert Johnson Program Soprano Sara Kane Sally Amero Carol Meyers Colonial Song Percy Grainger Lynn Balabanis Barbara Moschella (1882 – 1961) Betsy Ballard Eileen Pensinger Alison Bennett Joanna Pratt Fantasia on Christmas Carols Ralph Vaughan Williams Rose Berstein Terri Reiskin (1872 – 1958) Diana Hurley Bobbi Sachs Baritone Soloist, Tshegofatso Moeng Mary Kirby Tenor A Selection of Christmas Carols Ana Astrid Molina Don Dillin The Cedar Lane Waits Tina Neilson K. David Hulteng Toni Robison Gloucestershire Wassail Traditional Tom Robbins Terri Sorota Carol of the Bells Traditional, arranged by Kathie Rogers Peter J. Wihousky Mary Lou Steptoe Joyce Rosenthal The Star Carol Alfred Burt Kathie Van Aalten Lee Webber (1920 – 1954) Alto Shepherds, What Fragrance Traditional Bass Mary Adams Come, Dear Children Alfred Burt Igor Baumann Laura Ariovich Bob Berendt Miriam Bunow Intermission Tom Dine Angeline Butler Tom Kirby Nancy Clark Fantasia on “Greensleeves” Ralph Vaughan Williams Harold Seifried Linda Edwards Bruce Weber Miriam Goldberg Brigg Fair, An English Rhapsody Frederick Delius Lynne Gots Accompanist (1862 – 1934) Lucy Hand Judith Bourzutschky Pomp and Circumstance March, No. 4 Edward Elgar Helen Ingalls (1957 – 1934) Program Notes Conductor, clarinetist, and educator Philip Espe is the assistant conductor of the NIHCO. In addition to his duties with the For our holiday concert, we are featuring music of the British Isles, composed NIHCO, Mr. Espe manages the Children's Orchestra, during the early years of the twentieth century. During this period, there was an El Sistema inspired music education initiative serving four a resurgence of interest in one of the richest veins of English music—the folk Title 1 schools in Washington, DC, and serves as a staff song. This interest, happily, coincided with the development of recording conductor for the DC Youth Orchestra Program. Recent technology capable of reproducing these songs, often sung by the last conducting highlights include serving as a 2015-2016 Chicago surviving inheritors of the oral tradition. In fact, two of our composers— Sinfonietta Project Inclusion Freeman Conducting Fellow, a Ralph Vaughan Williams and Percy Grainger—spent years researching, performance at the Argentine Embassy in celebration of compiling, and recording these gems, bequeathing to us a permanent archive Argentina's bicentennial, and guest conducting the of the oral tradition that would otherwise have been lost. Northwestern University Philharmonia. Mr. Espe holds a Colonial Song Master of Music in Orchestral Conducting from Northwestern Percy Grainger University, an Artist Diploma in Conducting from San Diego Grainger was an Australian-born composer, arranger and pianist. In the State University, and a Bachelor of Music in Clarinet course of a long and innovative career he played a prominent role in the Performance from DePaul University. revival of interest in British folk music in the early years of the 20th century. In 1905, Grainger began to collect original folksongs. Starting at Brigg in Baritone Tshegofatso Moeng, from Johannesburg, South Lincolnshire, over the next five years he gathered and transcribed more than Africa, is currently pursuing a Master of Music in Opera 300 songs from all over the country, including much material that had never Performance at the University of Maryland as a member of the been written down before. From 1906, Grainger used a phonograph, one of the Maryland Opera Studio. He holds a Bachelor of Music in Vocal first collectors to do so, and by this means he assembled more than 200 Edison Performance and Composition from University of the cylinder recordings of native folk singers. Colonial Song began life as a piano solo. Grainger wrote it in 1911 as a gift to Witwatersrand, Johannesburg. He made his operatic debut in his mother, Rose. It represents a comparatively rare instance of Grainger the chorus of Maryland Opera Studio’s 2015 spring production relying on an original melody rather than extant folk sources. of Ravel’s L’enfant et les sortileges. In the upcoming season, he will be involved in Mozart’s Don Giovanni, Blitzstein’s Regina Fantasia on Christmas Carols with Maryland Opera Studio, and Verdi’s La Traviata with Ash Ralph Vaughan Williams Lawn Opera. He was a finalist in UMD’s Concerto Competition A major figure in the revival of folk music, Ralph Vaughan Williams began for 2015 and the recipient of a Fulbright Scholarship in 2016 to to collect, arrange, and publish English folk tunes as early as 1903, which made study in the United States. Other awards from University of him a pioneer in the field of ethnomusicology, and he catalogued some the Witwatersrand include the Elizabeth Cornell Prize and the 800 folk tunes during his lifetime. His own compositions were heavily SAMRO Vocal Prize. influenced both by traditional folk music and the music of the late English Renaissance masters like Thomas Tallis and William Byrd. A note about Waits. From medieval times up to the early 19th- The Fantasia on Christmas Carols is based on three English carols which century, every British town and city had a band of “waites,” whose Vaughan Williams himself had collected: The Truth Sent From Above, Come All duties included playing their instruments through the town at night, You Worthy Gentlemen (the Somerset Carol), and On Christmas Night (the Sussex waking the townsfolk on dark winter mornings by playing under Carol). It was first performed in 1912, at the Hereford Cathedral as part of the their windows, and leading the mayor’s procession on civic occasions. Three Choirs Festival. This festival dates back to 1719, and originally featured Although waits were abolished in 1835, their name lingered on as one choir from the three cathedrals located in the English counties, Hereford, Christmas waits—a group of musicians who banded together to play Gloucester, and Worcester. and sing carols for money or refreshments around their town over the Christmas period. In keeping with the English theme of this concert, the NIH Community Chorus will be performing an assortment of About our Directors Fantasia on “Greensleeves” Richard Scerbo (Music Director and Conductor, NIHCO) maintains Ralph Vaughan Williams an active schedule as a conductor, performer, teacher, and arts “Greensleeves” has been around since at least the 16th century.