Mastery and Mythology The University of Kansas Symphony Orchestra Carolyn Watson, Director of Orchestral Activities Leandro Cardoso, Graduate Teaching Assistant Joseph Chan, Assistant Conductor

La Péri Fanfare Paul Dukas (1865-1935)

Left, Right? Ethan Martin (b. 1997) Winner of the 2020 Lawner Composition Prize

Blumine Gustav Mahler (1860-1911)

Entr’acte Caroline Shaw (b. 1982)

Intermission

Piano Concerto No. 3 in C Minor Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827) Taeri Lee, piano soloist Winner, 2019-20 School of Music Concerto Competition

Friday, February 26, 2021 7:30 p.m., Streaming from the Lied Center of Kansas

THE UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA

Violin Yi-Miao Huang, Concertmaster Ilvina Gabrielian Diego Zapata Abby Atwood Tristan McGehee Dmitrii Tulupov Xiaohui Yan Daniel Hanneman Mariana Heatwole Anna Marburger

Viola Ricardo Cavalcante Joseph Chan Nicolás Arguello Calista Brunett Emily Lavely Jonathan Hess Grace Hart Ali Pittman Nicholas Dang

Cello James Alexander Josiah Cordes Arabella Schwerin Diana Unruh Vincent Hsiung Abbey King Hunter Turner Regan Reed Gabriela Ruiz Matthew Wellman Ben Farney

Bass Minjoo Hwangbo Caitlin Crosby William Kleemann Colin Oberg

Flute Chloe Descher Brenna Wiinanen Mackenzie Dugger

Oboe Wesley Boehm Maya Griswold

Clarinet Kaitlyn Gerde Katherine Anderson

Bassoon Megan Gordon William Holke

Horn Sam Spicer Caleb Kraemer Carter Harrod Aubrey Fossett

Trumpet Tyler McTavish Oscar Haro Tyler Parkridge Rafniel Rios

Trombone Sam Rosenbaum Brady Gell

Bass Trombone David Paff

Tuba Bryan Johnson

Harp Erin Wood

Timpani Ethan Martin Nate Bachta

Percussion Thomas Parnell Tom Fabing Nicholas Wright

Biographies & Program Notes

Carolyn Watson, Conductor Australian conductor Carolyn Watson has been based in the United States since 2013 during which time she has led performances with the Austin Symphony, Catskill Symphony, Detroit Symphony Civic Orchestra, LaPorte County Symphony, Kansas City Ballet, Kansas City Chamber Orchestra and World Youth Symphony Orchestra. Recruited internationally as Music Director of the Interlochen Arts Academy Orchestra, she won the 2015 American Prize for Orchestral Performance with this ensemble, also collaborating with soloists including Mark O’Connor and Alexandre Tharaud during her tenure. Carolyn continues to enjoy an ongoing association with Interlochen as conducting faculty at Interlochen Arts Camp and for Interlochen Online.

An experienced conductor of opera, 2021 sees Carolyn lead Hansel and Gretel for Amarillo Opera and Fellow Travelers at Des Moines Metro Opera, along with a production of As One. Most recently she conducted ‘And Still we Dream’ for the Lyric Opera of Kansas City, her third engagement for the Lyric in as many years. This production was featured in the Emmy-Award winning PBS documentary, Higher Octaves: Leading Women in the Arts. She was engaged to conduct the world premiere of Gordon Getty’s opera at Festival Napa Valley, and in 2017 Carolyn was one of six conductors selected for the Hart Institute for Women Conductors, where she led the Dallas Opera Orchestra in two public performances.

A committed music educator, Carolyn currently serves as Director of Orchestral Studies at The University of Kansas whilst continuing to enjoy an active freelance career throughout the US, Europe and Australia. She has conducted orchestras internationally including the Brandenburg Symphony, BBC Concert Orchestra, Budapest Operetta Theatre, Bulgarian State Opera Bourgas North Czech Philharmonic Orchestra, Kodály Philharmonic, Savaria Symphony Orchestra, Scottish Chamber Orchestra, and in Russia, the St. Petersburg Chamber Philharmonic. Other notable European credits include Musical Assistant at the Staatsoper Berlin for Infektion!, a festival of modern theatre celebrating the works of John Cage, resident at the Israeli National Opera, and assistant to Sir Charles Mackerras on his final two productions at The Royal Opera, Covent Garden and Glyndebourne. She has participated in master classes with Marin Alsop, Peter Eötvös, Yoel Levi, Martyn Brabbins and Alex Polishchuk and conducted musicians of the Berlin Philharmonic in Interaktion.

A major prizewinner at the 2012 Emmerich Kálmán International Operetta Conducting Competition in Budapest, Carolyn Watson was a Fellow of the American Academy of Conducting at the Aspen Music Festival where she studied with David Zinman. Carolyn is the recipient of a number of prestigious national and international awards for young conductors including the Brian Stacey Award for emerging Australian conductors, Sir Charles Mackerras Conducting Prize awarded via the Australian Music Foundation in London, Opera Foundation Australia’s Bayreuth Opera Award and Berlin New Music Opera Award and the Nelly Apt Conducting Scholarship. She is the beneficiary of support from the American Australian Association's Dame Joan Sutherland Fund and a Sheila Pryor Study Grant from the Australian Opera Auditions Committee. She is also a Churchill Fellow, and was the recipient of a Creative Fellowship from the State Library of Victoria.

Carolyn holds a PhD in Performance (Conducting) from the University of Sydney where she studied under Imre Palló. The subject of her doctoral thesis was Gesture as Communication: The Art of Carlos Kleiber. www.carolyn-watson.com

Leandro Cardoso Leandro Cardoso is a Brazilian conductor currently pursuing his master's degree in orchestral conducting at the University of Kansas under Dr. Carolyn Watson's tutelage. He is the Co-Director of the University Orchestra in Lawrence and serves as the assistant conductor at the University of Kansas Symphony Orchestra. In the United States, he has also served as a cover conductor at Greater Kansas City's Philharmonia.

He is the Athos Chamber Orchestra's founder and principal conductor, a group dedicated to premiering contemporary works by Brazilian composers. The group held its first concert in April 2018 - Containers: Multidimensional Paths, with an acclaimed reception at the Palace of Arts in Belo Horizonte. Leandro also develops a solid work as an arranger, writing for everything from chamber groups to the symphony orchestra.

Leandro previously studied with renowned Brazilian conductor Marcos Arakaki and with professors Lincoln Andrade, Arnon Oliveira, and Iara Fricke Matte in the Orchestral Conducting Course at the Federal University of Minas Gerais (UFMG). He always sought to improve. He took courses and masterclasses in orchestral direction with internationally acclaimed conductors, such as Cristian Măcelaru, Miguel Harth- Bedoya, Sarah Ioannides, and Keneth Kiesler.

He began his musical life at the age of 10, with Maestro Edgard Andrade, at Colégio Militar de Belo Horizonte, where he later became the Music Band's assistant conductor. At the age of 14, he joined the Music Education course at the State University of Minas Gerais. At the age of 17, he started a bachelor's degree in trumpet at UFMG. He graduated and acted as the UFMG symphony orchestra's principal trumpet for two years, playing under renowned conductors, such as Silvio Viegas, Dwight Satterwhite, and Dario Sotelo. In 2008, he joined the Symphonic Orchestra of the Military Police of Minas Gerais, acting as a trumpeter and assistant conductor. He also performed as a guest trumpeter in the Minas Gerais Symphonic Orchestras and the Ouro Preto Orchestra.

Joseph Chan Joseph Shing Him Chan is an emerging Australian conductor currently based in Lawrence, Kansas, where he is completing a Master of Music (MMus) under the tutelage of Dr Carolyn Watson. Balancing his strong instinct for musical interpretation with a co-operative approach, Joseph is equally comfortable engaging both professional and developing ensembles.

During his undergraduate studies in Australia, Joseph was one of only eleven young conductors selected to participate in the prestigious Australian Conducting Academy Summer School held in Tasmania. There, he worked with the principal guest conductor of The Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra, Johannes Fritzsch, and conducted the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra in a showcase concert, performing Mozart’s Symphony no.39. Additionally, Joseph has also worked with the Xi’an Symphony Orchestra, participated in the Queensland Conservatorium Griffith University Orchestral Conducting School, the Symphony Services International Scholar Conductor Course, working with local and international conductors Dane Lam, Larry Rachleff, and Christopher Seaman, respectively.

Now beginning his career in the United States, Joseph has been actively involved in the orchestral programs of The University of Kansas, regularly directing the Kansas University Symphony Orchestra as well as co- founding a new ensemble, the Kansas University Orchestra. In addition to his conducting schedule, Joseph is also a proficient violist, with mentors including Professor Patricia Pollett and Boris Vayner. As a violist, he has performed symphonic and operatic works under the batons of Alondra de la Parra, Matthew Coorey, Daniel Carter and Guy Noble, and has performed in a solo masterclass with violist Antoine Tamestit. Through his work as a conductor, Joseph strives to bring both innovation and vision to a diverse range of ensembles.

Taeri Lee, piano soloist Pianist Taeri Lee is currently pursuing a doctorate degree in piano performance at the University of Kansas where he studies with Dr. Eric Zuber. He received a Masters at the University of Kansas, a Bachelor’s at Chung-Ang University, and graduated from Kay-Won Art High School in South Korea. He has won top prizes at many major piano competitions in South Korea. He also ranked a second prize at the 2021 Charleston classical international music competition, a finalist at Valsesia Musica and Pietro Argento international piano competitions in Italy, and Young piano star international piano competition in Germany. He has performed in masterclasses for prominent professors including Alexander Korsantia, Robert McDonald, Alexander Braginsky, and Boris Berman.

Dukas - Fanfare to La Péri In Persian mythology, a peri is a magical creature like a fairy, who serves the God of Light. Paul Dukas, the composer of The Sorceror's Apprentice, chose the topic for his last major work, a ballet called La péri that he subtitled poème dansé, or "danced poem." The scenario tells of an oriental prince in search of the Flower of Immortality, which is guarded by the peri. When he finds her, he becomes obsessed by desire for her as well as for the flower, and thus is fated to perish. Sadly, La péri was the last work Dukas published, although he lived for more than 20 years beyond its premiere. The ballet has been revived occasionally, but has never become a repertory staple.

The brilliant brass fanfare that precedes it, however, has become almost as familiar as Copland's Fanfare for the Common Man. Ironically, Dukas added it as an afterthought. He later stated that he sought to bring the exoticism of the tale to life through an orchestra he called "a kind of translucent, dazzling enamel." Both the glittering trumpet and horn calls and the rich harmonies of the fanfare's middle section amply fulfill his goal. Even separated from the ballet score, the fanfare lavishly delivers the promise of all good fairy tales: "once upon a time, in a land far away. . ." Dukas scored the Fanfare for four horns, three trumpets, three trombones, and tuba. © Laurie Shulman, 2019

Ethan Martin – Left, Right? Ethan Martin is an American percussionist and composer born in 1997 in Kansas City. He began music at the age of four with piano lessons and began percussion in grade school. As a percussionist, Ethan has earned many awards such as first prize in the Kansas Day of Percussion Marimba and Snare Drum Competition, first prize in the Mid-Missouri Percussion Arts Trophy Marimba and Snare Drum Competition and was a finalist for the MalletLab International Mallet Competition. Ethan primarily composes for piano and percussion with a “romantic-atonal” feel. His compositions have been heavily inspired by the music that he has heard in video games and in film. Ethan is currently studying at the University of Kansas to receive a Bachelor of Music in Percussion Performance and a Bachelor of Music in Music Composition.

“Left, Right?” was originally composed for solo piano in a series of pieces for solo piano called “Portraits.” These pieces are each inspired by various people or fictional characters that have had an impact on my life. “Left, Right?” is the second piece in this series of “Portraits,” and was inspired by the presidential campaign of Andrew Yang. “Left, Right?” is an atonal march built by various combinations of pentatonic scales.

Mahler – Blumine Revision is an operative word for virtually every composer who produces a score of almost any length or importance. For example, the revisions of the symphonies of Bruckner (often by others and approved by the composer) are legend. That’s an extreme example. In the case of Mahler and his first symphony the revisions had to do mainly with orchestration and these were all done by Mahler himself. But the most serious of the Symphony’s changes had to do with the second movement that he titled Blumine, and here he performed major surgery, specifically amputation -- he didn’t just change some of its elements but rather he excised the movement entirely. It was still a part of the Symphony in the performances of 1889, 1893, and 1894, but after being cast out it simply disappeared, only to be discovered in 1959 when a Mrs. James M. Osborn purchased the original score at an auction in London. In spite of the explanation given by the previous owner of the manuscript, Blumine’s true history remains clouded.

In his massive first volume on the life and works of Mahler, Henry-Louis de la Grange quotes the composer as calling the movement his hero’s "blunder of youth," and at another time explaining that "it was mainly because of an excessive similarity in key [surprisingly, pure C major] that I eliminated the ‘Blumine’ Andante from my First Symphony." De la Grange casts doubt on the verity of the last statement, which leaves us with little more to do than shrug, listen to the music and accept it as an independent piece, an orphan, if you will, or decide that it should be reinstated into the Symphony.

The music of Blumine came from a series of tableaux vivants that Mahler wrote as a youth to illustrate a popular German poem, Der Trompeter von Säckingen. The piece is all shimmery poetic restraint, its moonlit mood evoked by the simple, yearningly sentimental main theme, given, after four gentle orchestral measures, by a trumpet summoning its most lyrical voice. The transparent scoring of a small orchestral body, coupled with the charmingly naïve materials results in a Mahlerian moment singularly free of the composer’s characteristic tension and stress. @Orrin Howard

Beethoven – Piano Concerto No. 3 in C minor, Op. 37 The composer introduced his Concerto in C minor at one of those massive all-Beethoven benefits – with Beethoven as beneficiary – which continues to boggle the mind more than two centuries after the fact. The date was April 5, 1803, in the Theater an der Wien, the program offering three premieres: the present work, the Second Symphony, and the oratorio Christus am Ölberge (Christ on the Mount of Olives), as well as a reprise of the First Symphony, first heard a year earlier.

According to Beethoven’s pupil Ferdinand Ries, the rehearsal, the only rehearsal for the entire concert, began at 8am and was a shambles. The orchestra was the Viennese second-string, the city’s best players having been hired by a competing presenter for a performance of Haydn’s The Creation that same evening. “[It] was frightful,” Ries recalled. “At half past two everyone was exhausted and dissatisfied. Prince Karl Lichnowsky [one of Beethoven’s patrons], who was at the rehearsal from its beginning, sent out for large baskets of buttered bread, cold meats, and wine. He invited all the musicians to help themselves, and a collegial atmosphere was restored.”

The score of the Concerto was not finished by the time of the rehearsal and indeed it remained a work in progress during the performance, as was noted by another Beethoven pupil, Ignaz von Seyfried, who considered himself fortunate to have been chosen by Beethoven as his page-turner. “I saw empty pages with here and there what looked like Egyptian hieroglyphs, unintelligible to me, scribbled to serve as clues for him. He played most of his part from memory, since, obviously, he had put so little on paper. So, whenever he reached the end of some invisible passage, he gave me a surreptitious nod and I turned the page. My anxiety not to miss such a nod amused him greatly and the recollection of it at our convivial dinner after the concert sent him into gales of laughter.”

The C-minor Concerto had a second “premiere” in Vienna a year later, from the finished manuscript – presumably without hieroglyphs – when the soloist was Ferdinand Ries. The Concerto bridges the divide between Beethoven’s two earlier, more clearly Mozart-derived concertos and a more personal style, while simultaneously showing a keen awareness of Mozart's most Beethoven- like concerto, K. 491, in the same key of C minor. Both open with the strings softly playing an ascending figure, the winds joining in for the first climax. A thematic fragment – C–E-flat–A-flat – of the theme of the Mozart K. 491 first movement is stated by the low strings in the ninth measure of the Beethoven. Most strikingly, as the late Charles Rosen noted, Beethoven’s solo arpeggios in the coda recall portions of Mozart’s in his work. But here, the ferocious C-minor runs with which the piano subsequently enters are purest, most Beethovenian drama.

The slow movement is an oasis of calm amid the agitated outer movements, with the songful expanse of piano melody accompanied by muted strings, after which the piano arpeggios curl around the theme, now stated by strings and woodwinds. There follows a magical passage where piano arpeggios accompany a duet for bassoon and flute. The rondo finale, C minor again, has plenty of spirit but also a good deal of tension and the full bag of Beethoven tricks: a second theme, announced by the clarinet, whereupon the principal theme is transformed into a fugue whose conclusion would seem to signal the return of C minor. But no, it ascends a semitone to A-flat (an old Haydn trick), and then the piano wanders to E major, which may be far from A- flat but not from the slow movement of this very Concerto. @Herbert Glass