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559603bk Still:557541bk Kelemen 3+3 4/8/09 2:55 PM Page 1 John Jeter Fort Smith Symphony John Jeter (‘Jetter’) has been the music director and conductor of the Fort Smith (John Jeter, Music Director) AMERICAN CLASSICS Symphony since 1997. He is also the recipient of the 2002 Helen M. Thompson Award presented by the American Symphony Orchestra League. This award is given First Violin Viola Mark Phillips Jack Jackson, II to one outstanding ‘early career’ music director in the United States every two years. Elizabeth Lyon, Darrel Barnes, Principal John Widder Jane Waters-Showalter Concertmaster Anitra Fay, Marlo Williams It is one of the few awards given to conductors in America. He is the recipient of the Trumpet Mayor’s Achievement Award for his services to the City of Fort Smith. John Jeter has Lori Fay, Assistant Principal Nicholas Barnaby Jesse Collett Samuel Hinson Angela Richards, Principal WILLIAM GRANT STILL guest conducted numerous orchestras including the Springfield Symphony, Karen Jeter, Ryan Gardner Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra, Oklahoma City Philharmonic, Arkansas Associate Concertmasters Kirsten Weingartner Weiss Kathy Murray Flute Penny Schimek Symphony Orchestra, North Arkansas Symphony Orchestra, Charleston Symphony, Gulf Coast Symphony and Illinois Carol Harrison, Elizabeth Shuhan, Symphonies Nos. 4 and 5 Chamber Symphony among many others. He co-hosts two radio programmes and is involved in many radio and Densi Rushing, Mary Ann Saylor Trombone Erika C. Lawson Principal television projects concerning classical music. He received his formal education at the University of Hartford’s Hartt Er-Gene Kahng, Emmaline McLeod Brian Haapanen, Principal School of Music and Butler University’s Jordan College of Fine Arts. Assistant Concertmasters Elizabeth Meisinger Vernon Howard Poem for Orchestra Christy Genn Julie Konzelman Arthur Busby Bass Trombone Fort Smith Symphony Sara Morrow Piccolo Timothy Hsu Viktoria Matheson Paul Johnston, Principal Fort Smith Symphony • John Jeter Founded in 1923, the Fort Smith Symphony is the oldest orchestra in the state of Arkansas. The orchestra is a per service Christy Paxton Julie Konzelman, Principal Curtis Hansen Tuba professional ensemble drawn from musicians throughout the region. The orchestra performs classics, pops and Douglas Droste Charlotte Scott Oboe educational concerts in the Arkansas Best Corporation Performing Arts Center in Fort Smith. Committed to education, Steven Hughes, II Theresa Delaplain, Tommy Hough, Principal the orchestra presents numerous educational programmes including a composer in residence programme, ensembles Chris Pinkston Cello Principal Timpani and guest artists in the schools and ‘Earquake!™’ multi-media concerts for school children. Natasha Nottoli Stephanie Lemoine, Lorraine Duso Philip Parker, Principal Katie Barton-Waid Co-Principal Oksana Pavilionis Joan Gasaway, English Horn Percussion Chun-Yu Chen Co-Principal Suzanne McGowen, David Ewing, Principal William Elliott Principal Lance Drege Second Violin Barbara Godette Lee Parham Ty Myers, Principal Clarinet Brady Lanier Tom Flocks, Principal Josh Knight Aquiles Figueroa, Chris Corbishley Assistant Principal Randy Harper Celesta Jason Jupiterwala Robert Mueller, Principal Nan Lu James T. Rollins Bass Clarinet Carla Geter Jill Winter Morgan Kristi Sturgeon, Principal Harp Greta Burdick Kaia Holder Gaye LeBlanc, Principal Justin Pourtorkan Bassoon Josh Klossner Richard Ramey, Principal Nicole Melki Pola Benke Librarian Martha Scott Cox Susie Brown David Ewing Tara Mueller C Double Bass Contrabassoon Melody Garrett Stage Manager Jerry Lane, Principal Richard Bobo, Principal Linda Hills Wayne Warmack Becky S. Yates M James Ruggles John Schimek Horn Richard Falkner Karol Kowal Michael Gilliland, Machelle Ward Greg Moore Principal Y Jeanne Kierre Cody Sisk Richard Ruhe K 5 8.559603 6 8.559603 559603bk Still:557541bk Kelemen 3+3 4/8/09 2:55 PM Page 2 William Grant Still (1895–1978) civilization has begun, come to a climax, and declined. postwar vision of America freshly empowered as the The first movement, in sonata form, uses thematic The third movement is a jazz scherzo. Clarinet and Symphony No. 5 ‘Western Hemisphere’ In the darkness, the past is swept away. When the new day savior of world freedom, prepared to spread that light to transformation, beginning with a melody in the bass bassoon over brushes on drum and suspended cymbal set Poem for Orchestra dawns, the lands of the Western Hemisphere are raised all humanity. instruments later transformed into the movement’s second the stage for the principal theme in flutes and oboe under Symphony No. 4 ‘Autochthonous’ from the bosom of the Atlantic. They are endowed by the Poem for Orchestra was commissioned by the Kulas theme. The main theme, the idée fixe of the entire work, a walking bassline. The idée fixe appears as a second Great Intelligence who created them and who controls American Composers’ Fund for the Cleveland Orchestra soon appears in chordal strings, and appears throughout, theme in three flutes. A powerful melancholic theme in the The life and career of the African-American composer conduct an orchestra in the Deep South (1955, New their destiny with virtues unlike any that have gone before: at the suggestion of then music director Erich Leinsdorf. unifying the work. Legato muted trumpets present the violins begins the finale. It alternates with two episodes, William Grant Still qualifies as the quintessential Orleans Philharmonic); first to have an opera produced by qualities which will find counterparts in the characters of The work was first performed in Cleveland with Rudolph second theme. The slow movement begins with the idée one in faster tempo developing the idée fixe as the second American “success story”. Often referred to as the “dean a major company (1949, Troubled Island, New York City the men who will inhabit them eventually, and who will Ringwall conducting on 7th and 9th December, 1944, later fixe, in the style of a spiritual, in the flute, while the main uses a seven-note motive taken from the main theme. The of African-American composers”, Still was born in Opera), and first to have an opera broadcast on television make them the abode of freedoms, of friendship, of the receiving a New York Philharmonic performance under theme is an oboe solo. The idée fixe reappears in the music strides forth as the motive leads to a noble, Woodville, Mississippi on 11th May, 1895, to a family of (posthumously in 1981, A Bayou Legend, PBS). Still sharing of resources and achievements of the mind and Artur Rodzinski. violins as the tempo increases. When the original tempo affirmative peroration combining both themes. Negro, Indian, Spanish, Irish and Scotch blood. Still’s received many honours including the Guggenheim of the spirit. These are our fellow-Americans in Latin The Poem, “one of Still’s key works” in the words of returns, the main theme appears in flute and harp, followed father, the town bandmaster, died when William was three, fellowship, honorary doctorates from Oberlin among America, Canada, and the islands of the Western Seas, Robert Barlett Haas, is an extensive symphonic poem by the idée fixe. Luminous strings evaporate at the close. David Ciucevich Jr. precipitating a move to Little Rock, Arkansas, where Still’s others, and the key to his home state in 1975. He died in who are today working with us to convert our ideals into “inspired by the concept of a world being reborn spiritually mother was a teacher. There, Still had his first musical Los Angeles on 3rd December, 1978. realities. after a period of darkness and desolation” in the words of experience, studying the violin. At his mother’s urging he Still’s most distinctive works are nationalistic, using The first movement immediately presents the main Verna Arvey. The impassioned, angular opening section (a began medical studies but dropped out as music exerted African-American forms such as the blues, spirituals, and theme, a three-note motive encompassing a minor third. reflection of wartime deprivation) holds sway to the a stronger pull. Music study at Oberlin was interrupted jazz in addition to other ethnic American musics. After This motive rises up the diminished scale along with a midpoint of the work, growing to a large climactic tutti by naval service in World War I. After the war, Still moved an early flirtation with avant-garde techniques, he returned great deal of syncopation, creating a tense, brooding capped by brass fanfares before collapsing into a glowing to New York, where he worked as an arranger for several to a neo-romantic idiom with lyrical melody and atmosphere. The second theme presented in the string melody representing the “coming to spiritual popular performers including W.C. Handy (composer of traditional harmony. His work retains a freshness with woodwinds, more happy and optimistic, tosses a two-note consciousness”. This “musical climax of hope” (in the Also available: the immortal St. Louis Blues) and Artie Shaw, whose hit, immediate appeal. Still, a deeply religious man, inscribed motive over more syncopation. A loud rising scale figure words of contemporary reviewers) builds to a radiant Frenesi, he orchestrated. Still gained immeasurable each of his works to God, “the source of all inspiration”. heralds the development of the second theme in the ending on a major seventh sonority colored by a minor experience playing the oboe in Broadway pit orchestras The Fifth Symphony was originally the Third Symphony strings, becoming
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