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At Home with the Juneau Symphony Partnering with KTOO to bring high-quality concerts into your home. H o p e & H e r i t a g e November 22 Sealaska Heritage Institute Clan House, Shuká Hít Works for strings and flute by Fanny Mendelssohn, George Walker, Franz Hoffmeister Ingrid White H o l i d a y C h e e r December 20 State Library Archives & Museum APK Atrium String and Brass Chamber ensembles Meghan Johnson, Lisa Ibias, Franz Felkl, Lindsay Clark juneausymphony.org For questions or more information call or email office. Concert locations and program details subject to change pending new COVID-19 mandates. All sales are final. At Home with the Juneau Symphony Welcome and thank you for joining us for the 58th season of the Juneau Symphony! We are thrilled to share with you the second virtual concert of the season – Hope and Heritage, featuring the Juneau Symphony String Quartet and Juneau Symphony flutist Inga White under the leadership of our At Home with the Juneau Symphony fall season Artistic Director, Franz Felkl. During these challenging times of the COVID-19 pandemic, we are grateful for the opportunity 2020 Board and Staff to continue to share music with you from some Beth Giron Pendleton of the most iconic locations in Juneau. We value President our community and recognize the many Connie McKenzie contributions of businesses and individuals who Vice President Stan Lujan support us and have included those in this Past President digital program as a way of thanking them for Myrna Elgee their ongoing commitment to our mission to Secretary Margaret MacKinnon “foster and create high-quality musical experiences Treasurer that contribute to the cultural diversity and vitality of Alaska’s Capital City.” Sharon Barton Annie Carpeneti Cherie Curry We look forward to the day when we can meet Nancy Jones together to share in mainstage concerts at the Heather Parker Deborah Rudis Juneau Douglas High School auditorium, and Neil Slotnick until then we hope you enjoy these special Christian Veliz concerts in the comfort and safety of your Franz Felkl home. Artistic Director, Fall Virtual Season Charlotte Truitt This season would not be possible without your Executive Director support. On behalf of our staff, musicians, and Taylor Young Board of Directors, thank you. Stay safe and Director of Operations stay well. Hope & Heritage Sunday, November 22, 2020 Sealaska Heritiage Institute, Shuká Hít Clan House 2:30pm Pre-concert Talk - 3:00pm Concert Alaska's Flag Music by Elinor Dusenbury Lyrics by Marie Drake and Carol Beery Davis Duet for Flute and Violin in G Major Franz Anton Hoffmeister I. Allegro (1754-1812) II. Adagio III. Allegrtto "Lyric for Strings" from String Quartet No. 1 George Walker (1922-2018) String Quartet in E-flat Major Fanny Mendelssohn-Hensel I. Adagio ma no troppo (1805-1847) II. Allegretto III. Romanze IV. Allegro molto vivace Alaska's Flag We open our Hope and Heritage program with our state song, Alaska's Flag. Since it was written in 1987, there has been work towards adopting the second verse written by Carol Beery Davis, but official recognition has not yet been realized. With a new wave of support from this generation's children, Juneau legislator, Representative Andi Story has been working to see that the second verse be officially recognized. This verse acknowledges that Alaska's history began long before sourdoughs arrived, and all those that make up our ethnically diverse state are a part of its history. We wanted to share this with you today, in part, to honor our friends at the Sealaska Heritage Institute and thank them for sharing their space with us for this performance. Verse 1, lyrics by Marie Drake Verse 2, lyrics by Carol Beery Davis Eight stars of gold on a field of blue, A native lad chose our Dipper's stars Alaska's flag may it mean to you. for Alaska's flag that there be no bars The blue of the sea, the evening sky, among our cultures. Be it known The mountain lakes, and the flowers through years our natives' past has grown nearby. to share our treasures, hand in hand, The gold of the early Sourdough's to keep Alaska our Great Land. dreams, We love the northern midnight sky, The precious gold of the hills and our mountains, lakes and the streams streams. nearby; The brilliant stars in the northern sky, Our Great North Star with its steady The "Bear", the "Dipper", and shining light high, will guide our cultures clear and bright The great North Star with its steady with Nature's flag to Alaskans dear - light The simple flag of a last Frontier. O'er land and sea a beacon bright. Alaska's flag to Alaskan's dear, Copyright University of Alaska The simple flag of a last frontier. Foundation, nonprofit use permitted, all other rights reserved. Program Notes Written by Franz Felkl Duet for Flute and Violin in G Major Franz Anton Hoffmeister (1754-1812) Classical music aficionados can easily name great Viennese composers of the Classical and Early Romantic Era such as Haydn, Mozart, and Beethoven. What we often forget is that these were just a handful of composers that were living, working, and thriving alongside each other in Austria’s capital city. Franz Anton Hoffmeister worked and shared a relationship with these “greats” during his lifetime. Originally, Hoffmeister traveled to Vienna to study law. After completing his studies, he found that music was his true passion. In 1825 he established one of the earliest music publishing companies in Vienna and grew this business venture to be the second largest, only the great Artaria & Co. overshadowed his company. In his lifetime he published and worked with the three composers listed above, even developing close relationships with them. Mozart dedicated his Quartet in D Major, K.499 to Hoffmeister and Beethoven addressed him in a letter as “most beloved brother”. Primarily known for his publishing, Hoffmeister was a respected and competent composer in his own right. He composed eight operas, over 50 symphonies, and numerous chamber works in his lifetime. With the rise in popularity of the flute in amatuer musicians during this period he composed numerous chamber works with flute as the focal point and 25 flute concertos. The Duet for Flute and Violin in G major is a perfect example of his writing for a small ensemble featuring the flute. Written in the typical fast- slow-fast three movement form of the time, the flute takes the leading role among the two instruments, allowing the violin to act in a subsidiary capacity. Hoffmeister does find time to trade off voices, giving each instrument a time to shine, but the flute still holds the soloistic nature throughout most of the work. “Lyric for Strings” from String Quartet No. 1 George Walker (1922-2018) George Walker wrote extensively throughout the 20th and 21st century where he set many landmarks. Growing up in the D.C. Metro-area, his father emigrated to the United States from Jamaica to attend medical school at Temple University School of Medicine, and later practiced medicine in the area. At the age of five his mother, Rosa King, started teaching him piano. Walker’s family soon realised that the boy was quite adept in his musical studies. At the age of fourteen they enrolled him in the Oberlin Conservatory of Music where he subsequently graduated at the age of eighteen. After Oberlin, Walker was accepted to the prestigious Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia where he studied piano with the great Rudolph Serkin. While there, he studied chamber music with virtuoso violist William Primrose and the great cellist Gregor Piatigorsky. Curtis is where he also began studying composition with Rosario Scalero, noted teacher of another great American composer, Samuel Barber. In 1945, he became one of the first African-American students to graduate from the music school at the Curtis Institute. Walker was a prolific composer, premiering and having been commissioned by the majority of the great orchestras in the United States. In 1996 Walker became the first African American to receive the Pulitzer Prize in Music for his work “Lilacs”. The “Lyric for Strings” was written when he was only nineteen and was originally entitled “Lament for Strings” in remembrance of his late grandmother. Its original form was for string orchestra but Walker later re-wrote it and included it as the second movement to his first string quartet. Somber and dark at the onset, the movement does not wallow for long. He writes in a range of moods reflecting the passing and memories of his grandmother. Having the same composition teacher, Walker and Barber share some similarities in compositional style. Walker’s “Lyric for Strings” is often compared to Barber’s famous “Adagio for Strings” but, in my humble opinion, Walker’s work is itself a masterpiece. String Quartet in E-flat Major Fanny Mendelssohn-Hensel (1805-1847) Typically, when we see the name Mendelssohn on a program we instinctually gravitate to Felix Mendelssohn. Musical genius ran in the family and Fanny shared this with her brother, Felix. Receiving similar, if not exactly the same, musical training in their early years, both Fanny and Felix composed and performed throughout their lives. Fanny Mendelssohn-Hensel wrote over 400 works, mainly songs and short works for piano. Her brother seems to have encouraged her writing but discouraged its publication. Social conventions at the time, along with the Mendelssohns' conservative nature, suppressed Fanny from publishing her own works. It is speculated that Felix published some of her works under his name.