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The Smithsonian American Art Museum Present 21st CENTURY CONSORT October 23, 2010 Nan Tucker McEvoy Auditorium Smithsonian American Art Museum The Smithsonian American Art Museum The Smithsonian American Art Museum presents presents 21st Century Consort Pre-Concert Discussion Christopher Kendall with Christopher Kendall, Artistic Director William Brehm, Jo Ann Gillula, Jordan Kuspa, and Mark Kuss Boyd Sarratt, Manager Program Elisabeth Adkins, Violin “As American As…” Lisa Emenheiser, Piano Abigail Evans, Viola Dover Beach . Samuel Barber Rebecca Racusin, Violin Ms. Adkins, Ms. Evans, Ms. Racusin, Mr. Sharp, Ms. Young William Sharp, Baritone Rachel Young, Cello Fantastic Stuff: A Suite for Viola. Jordan Kuspa Mark Huffman, Recording Engineer I. As the Flame Goes Out, Something Stirs II. Fantasy-Etude: Magic Carpet Ride III. Hoedown: The Wild Rumpus! IV. Fantasy-Serenade: The Sorcerer’s Viola V. Escape from the Castle on the Dark Mountain Saturday, October 23, 2010 Pre-Concert Discussion 4:00 p.m. Ms. Evans Concert 5:00 p.m. Nan Tucker McEvoy Auditorium Wager at the El Dorado Saloon . Jon Deak Smithsonian American Art Museum Ms. Adkins, Ms. Emenheiser, Ms. Young ❖ ❖ ❖ INTERMISSION The 21st Century Consort’s 2010–2011 Season is sponsored by Inaugural Suite . William Brehm The Smithsonian American Art Museum and funded in part Allegro – Andante – Largo – Presto by a generous contribution from The National Endowment for the Arts, and Ms. Emenheiser by the Board and Friends of the 21st Century Consort. My Favorite Things. Mark Kuss Old American Songs. Aaron Copland In a Samuel Barber centenary, no excuse may be required to program The Dodger one of his first and most beloved published works. Barber’s identity as Long Time Ago a distinctively American composer of Rockwell’s century, and the Our Town (piano solo) deeply conservative aesthetic of both, form a link. In this program we Story of Our Town – Conversation at the Soda Fountain – introduce a young composer to whose music we intend return visits The Resting-place on the Hill this year. Jordon Kuspa tells stories in his suite for unaccompanied Simple Gifts viola, and in this shares the underlying premise of the Rockwell exhibi- The Little Horse tion, which features works in the collections of the cinematographic Zion’s Walls storytellers George Lucas and Steven Spielberg. Ditto the graphic diver In Evening Air (piano solo) sions of Jon Deak’s piano trio based on a great American story. At the River William Brehm’s work for solo piano was composed to commemorate Ching-A-Ring Chaw an inauguration, not of an American president, but calling to mind the Ms. Adkins, Ms. Emenheiser, Ms. Evans, Ms. Racusin, Mr. Sharp, Ms. Young same spirit of nobility and celebration present in Rockwell’s depiction ❖ ❖ ❖ of great moments in American political life. We’re allowed a note of satire, I hope, with the inclusion of Mark Kuss’s wry representation of The audience is invited to join the artists in the Kogod Courtyard for an in- popular icons of American culture, and we end the program with a col formal post-concert reception, sponsored by the lection of songs by perhaps the quintessential American composer, Board and Friends of the 21st Century Consort. whose own contribution to the art of the cinema is here sampled with two piano solos from Copland’s notable scores for films. Program Notes – Christopher Kendal st This season marks the shift of the 21 Century Consort’s institutional Samuel Barber sponsorship from the Resident Associates to the Smithsonian Ameri- can Art Museum. As those attending Consort concerts for the last Samuel Barber (b. March 9, 1910 in West Chester, Pennsylvania, number of years will agree, the museum has become a marvelous d. January 23, 1981) opens this program in celebration of the 100th an home base for the Consort. Its staff, led by Jo Ann Gillula, the mu- niversary of his birth, and because he represents one of the more char- seum’s Chief of External Affairs, is wonderfully supportive, its facilities acteristic, and, also like Norman Rockwell, conservative figures in 20th a marvelous venue for our performances. Inspirationally, the SAAM’s century American art. In this respect he is a fitting choice for a musical exhibitions have served as a point of departure for many of the Con- tribute to Norman Rockwell, except that Barber’s melancholic tem- sort’s programs. Celebrating the museum’s sponsorship, all four pro- perament, already evident in the early “Dover Beach,” runs counter to grams this year are related to the exhibitions and collection. the perennial optimism of Rockwell’s work. Barber showed intense in- terest and talent in music at an early age. He was born into a distin- The exhibition of Norman Rockwell’s works presented a particular guished Irish-American family, his father a doctor, his mother a challenge in a repertoire of contemporary music, which rarely seems to pianist, his aunt a leading contralto at the Metropolitan Opera and his join in the celebration of love of country, personal honor, value of fam- uncle a composer of American art songs. Perhaps not surprisingly, Bar ily that characterizes Rockwell’s pictures. Nevertheless, we have found ber would become an accomplished composer for the voice, one of features of his role in 20th century American art and in the particular America’s most celebrated. He wrote his first musical at the age 7 and attributes of his work to inspire a program we hope reflects in interest- at 14 entered the Curtis Institute in Philadelphia, where he studied ing ways on this marvelous exhibition. piano, composition, and voice. Barber began composing seriously in his late teenage years. Around Dover Beach the same time, he met fellow Curtis schoolmate Gian Carlo Menotti, The Sea is calm tonight, who became his partner in life as well as in their shared profession. He The tide is full, the moon lies fair soon became a favorite of the conservatory’s founder, Mary Louise Upon the straits; on the French coast the light Curtis Bok. It was through Mrs. Bok that Barber was introduced to his Gleams and is gone; the cliffs of England stand, lifelong publisher, the Schirmer family. At the age of 18, Barber won Glimm’ring and vast, out in the tranquil bay Come to the window, sweet is the night-air! the Joseph H. Bearns Prize from Columbia University for his Violin Only, from the long line of spray Sonata (now lost or destroyed by the composer). Where the sea meets the moon-blanch’d land, In his twenties, Barber wrote a series of successful compositions, es- Listen! You hear the grating roar tablishing him among the leading American composers of his time. Of pebbles which the waves draw back, and fling, Many of his compositions were commissioned or first performed by At their return, up the high strand, such famous artists as Vladimir Horowitz, Eleanor Steber, John Brown- Begin, and cease, and then again begin, ing, Leontyne Price, Pierre Bernac, and Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau. With tremulous cadence slow, and bring When Barber was 28, his Adagio for Strings was performed by the NBC The eternal note of sadness in. Symphony Orchestra under the direction of Arturo Toscanini in 1938, Sophocles long ago along with his first Essay for Orchestra. Toscanini, who had only rarely Heard it on the Aegean, and it brought performed music by American composers before, remarked at the end Into his mind the turbid ebb and flow of the first rehearsal: “Semplice e bella. “ Of human misery; we Barber served in the Army Air Corps in World War II, where he was Find also in the sound a thought, commissioned to write his Second Symphony, a work he later sup- Hearing it by this distant northern sea. pressed. He won the Pulitzer Prize twice: in 1958 for his first opera Vanessa, and in 1963 for his Concerto for Piano and Orchestra. The sea of faith Was once, too, at the full, and round earth’s shore Lay like the folds of a bright girdle furled. Dover Beach But now I only hear Dover Beach (1931) represents Barber’s first work in an extended form Its melancholy, long, withdrawing roar, for voice and ensemble, of which he would become a master. It is the Retreating to the breath Of the night-wind, down the vast edges drear first overtly titled piece, and it is important in Barber’s biography. He And naked shingles of the world. was then a trained singer and had a beautiful baritone voice. Vaughan Williams heard him perform it at Bryn Mawr College, admired the Ah, love, let us be true work, and encouraged Barber to continue to compose. Dover Beach, To one another! For the world, which seems To lie before us like a land of dreams, an achingly beautiful and precocious setting (for a composer of 21) of So various, so beautiful, so new, the bleak poem by Matthew Arnold, reflects the profound melancholy Hath really neither joy, nor love, nor light, in the composer’s nature. Nor certitude, nor peace, nor help for pain; And we are here as on a darkling plain Swept with confused alarms of struggle and flight, Where ignorant armies clash by night. – Mattew Arnold Jordan Kuspa community engagement work in schools across Connecticut, with programs that have included musical collaborations with students in Jordan Kuspa’s music has been praised writing, drama, and filmmaking. in the New York Times as, “animated Aside from music, Jordan is a 2nd degree black belt in traditional and melodically opulent,” and, “con- karate. He was homeschooled before entering Rice University’s Shep- sistently alive and inspired.” His com- herd School of Music where he studied with Karim Al-Zand, Anthony positions have been performed by the Brandt, Shih-Hui Chen, Arthur Gottschalk, and Pierre Jalbert.

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