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Bravo Listen Up cover_Listen Up Cover PRINT 12/5/16 1:58 PM Page 1 PRINCETON SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA ROSSEN MILANOV, MUSIC DIRECTOR Listen Up! Creative Responses to Prokofiev’s Piano Concerto No. 3 ~ January 30-February 26, 2017 ~ Creative Responses to Prokofiev’s Piano Concerto No. 3 in C Major, Op. 26 Thirty-four talented middle school students attended the Princeton Symphony Orchestra’s November 6, 2016 Impassioned Russia concert. They listened attentively to Sergei Prokofiev’s third piano concerto, performed by Natasha Paremski and the PSO, conducted by Jayce Ogren. These PSO BRAVO! Listen Up! 2016-17 student writers and visual artists were invited to respond freely or consider prompts relating to the specific history of the piece and composer, the musical styles exhibited, and the experience of attending and listening to a live musical performance. The Listen Up! exhibition was displayed at the PSO’s January 29, 2017 Un/Restrained concert and at the Arts Council of Princeton from January 30 - February 26, 2017. The students’ work can also be seen in this exhibition catalog. Thank you to the following teachers who supported and coordinated their students’ participation in Listen Up! 2016-17: Roberta DeSantis, Cambridge School Sean Hildreth, The Hun School of Princeton Claudia Luongo, John Witherspoon Middle School Arlene Milgram, Montgomery Lower Middle School Whitney Ehnert, Montgomery Upper Middle School Alexandra Huggins, Princeton Charter School Sally Chrisman, St. Paul School of Princeton Linda Hochuli, Stuart Country Day School of the Sacred Heart Anne Schwartzberg, Stuart Country Day School of the Sacred Heart Coby Sikorsky, Timberlane Middle School. _____ The Princeton Symphony Orchestra (PSO) thanks Natasha Paremski for performing and discussing her interpretive process with PSO BRAVO! Listen Up! participants. The PSO is grateful to teaching artist Susan Hoenig for leading an inspiring and productive workshop. The Arts Council of Princeton’s longtime partnership support is greatly valued, and the PSO is especially thankful for Listen Up! workshop and exhibition coordination assistance from ACP staff members Melissa Ruopp, O’Sheila Eural, Rich Robinson, and Maria Evans. Listen Up! Workshop During the 2016-17 season, the PSO hosted its second Listen Up! workshop. On November 3, Listen Up! participants came to the Arts Council of Princeton (ACP) and listened to guest artist Natasha Paremski perform compositions for solo piano by Sergei Prokofiev and Frédéric Chopin. Natasha and the students discussed the history of both pieces and her creative and interpretive methods. ACP Instructor Susan Hoenig highlighted well-known visual artists who have created works in response to music, and guided the students in their artistic reflections. In preparation for their attendance at the Impassioned Russia concert, students created works of art and writing in response to the musical experience provided by Natasha. Photos of the Listen Up! workshop: (Top) Students preparing sketches of ideas, (Middle) Participants listening intently to Natasha’s performance, (Bottom left) Natasha encourages the students as she admires their work, (Above) Workshop group photo Per Aspera ad Astra Sophia Sapienza Grade 8—Montgomery Upper Middle School Whitney Ehnert, Teacher Acrylic paint on canvas The song had lots of feelings to it—sometimes happy and sometimes sad. In my painting I wanted to balance the bright, energetic, high parts of the music with the rich, romantic and luxurious parts. The shooting star shows how, throughout the song, there is a constant buildup of energy, like a star getting bigger and brighter as it trails across the sky. That energy aside, the song also had a sort of spacey emptiness about it. It gave me the feeling of floating in space, and I knew since the concert, that I wanted to do a painting about outer space. Also, the high trills and staccato notes on the piano reminded me of twinkling starts, further adding to the painting’s theme about space. The music was flowing and changing, and seemed light and delicate in a way that could only be captured in a painting. This was my first time using paint on canvas. Overall, the piece was very dramatic, and composed of opposites—and that is what I tried to capture in my painting. Burn How one lives their life will affect their perception of death. This song is not skipping to- Grace Johnson wards death. This song struggles, it isn’t done, but it will be, whether it likes it or not. I see Grade 8—Montgomery Upper Middle School a man suffering an illness that he knows will bring his end soon, but he looks beyond it. Whitney Ehnert, Teacher The fluctuations to excitement and liveliness are his spurts of creative expression—when Colored pencil and ink he finds optimism and wishes to pursue his artistic abilities. But the dissonance is reality eating at him, and the melancholy, emotional portions of the song are his constant realiza- tions that time is almost up, and death will come. The faster parts in forte filled with ac- cents portray his agony and frustration at how inevitable death is. In these cold winter months, I’ve spent many evenings watching the logs burn in my fireplace. Those burning logs inspired the theme of my piece. The fluctuating blue and orange flames are the man’s enthusiasm mixing with discouragement. There is only so much time before the log burns out—one life—and the flames burn on to the very end, holding on in those smolder- ing embers, but eventually, they succumb. Prokofiev’s Concerto Hearing a thrilling piano concerto was an experience where depending on your mood, you can explore what is hidden in your mind. When you can close your eyes and really get a glimpse of what you’re capable of imagining, you can take your creativity to Mystery new lengths. You can pair a composer’s pieces with your thoughts and visions. So, when I attended the concert, I had my It’s a beautiful day eyes closed almost the whole entire time so I could really see You’re walking in the forest how the music could inspire my creativity. When the piece had a All of a sudden nice calm tempo, I imagined a grassy meadow and a cool breeze You don’t know what’s happening blowing through trees on a warm summer day. I could imagine Spinning, commotion myself laying in the soft grass with the sun glaring through the It stops and starts again trees. When I was listening to Natasha play the Prokofiev, each Neverending one had one point in the movement where it would be upbeat and You’re frozen in time cheerful, then sad and sorrowful, and finally it would become All of a sudden more cheerful again. The sorrowful beat in the pieces reminded It ends me of a rainy day with dark grey storm clouds. I could feel Proko- You have woken up from a dream fiev’s pain and emotion when he wrote this piece, and Natasha’s passionate way of playing the piano also made the piece very powerful. Prokofiev wrote this way most likely because there was a point in his life where he could not return home to his family be- Grace LaNasa Grade 6—Stuart Country Day School cause of the bad conditions in Russia. That incident probably Linda Hochuli, Teacher played a big part in his composing. This type of music really chal- lenged me to think beyond what I thought I was capable of and to really take time to think about what scene would fit this music. Be- ing able to close my eyes and feel the music was a captivating experience. Julianne Russell Grade 7—St. Paul School Sally Chrisman, Teacher Untitled Emily Zhou Grade 8—Montgomery Upper Middle School Whitney Ehnert, Teacher Colored pencil on paper Throughout the various movements of the orchestra piece, the mood was constantly changing. The piece started off with an ominous, cautious tone, then transitioned into an awakening hope, and ended with an unresolved gloom for the final movement. This colored pencil piece is of a little girl wrapped in the “arms” of a butterfly. A butterfly typically symbolizes freedom and hope. However the cooler tones of the butterfly con-tradicts this idea and portrays the creature like a looming, menacing evil. The bright colored girl is the contrasting hope in a sea of darkness. You could look at this piece in one of two main ideas: One, she is being protected from the outside darkness. Two, she is trying to escape con-finement. Furthermore, I wanted to play with the anamorphic concept. Her dress is the color of the cocoon of a butterfly. In addition, the legs extend from her body as her own limbs. Perhaps, the possible problems originated from none other but herself? This could also symbolize how the divisions between light and dark perhaps were initially non existent, and were only created due to the divisions that your mind sets. This en-tire piece is of contradiction. Contradictions between light and dark, safety and destruction, and self and environment. Is the butterfly evil or in-nocent? Is the girl safe after all or in a never ending restriction? The unresolved conflict here is a series of unanswered questions, what hap-pened to her? Orchestra on Fire Amanda Sun Grade 8—John Witherspoon Middle School Claudia Luongo, Teacher Acrylic paint on canvas I created this piece after experiencing the concert of the Princeton Symphony Orchestra. It was a great performance, especially the music with the piano. I thought the music was very exciting; and a scene of the whole orchestra on fire just popped into my mind.