Los Angeles Chapter “Local Vocal” Art Song Concert Sunday, October 7, 2018, 4:00 Pm St
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National Association of Composers, USA - Los Angeles Chapter “Local Vocal” art song concert Sunday, October 7, 2018, 4:00 pm St. Athanasius Episcopal Church at the Cathedral Center of St. Paul 840 Echo Park Avenue, Los Angeles James French, Music Director/Organist From “Sea Fever” Katherine Saxon Texts by John Masefield ASCAP Composed in 2008 2. Christmas Eve at Sea 3. Sea Fever Keith Colclough, bass-baritone Kacey Link, piano Summer Roses Matthew Hetz Composed in 2018 ASCAP 1. Du bist wie eine Blume . text by Heinrich Heine 2. The Rose Family . text by Robert Frost 3. Sea Rose . text by Hilda Doolittle 4. Roses . text by George Eliot Kirsten Ashley Wiest, soprano Ashley Zhang, piano From “A Theme for My Song” Richard Derby Text by Charlene Derby ASCAP Composed in 2013 4. The Plan Kirsten Ashley Wiest, soprano Ashley Zhang, piano 1 A Song Cycle on Life and Love Sandra Bostrom-Aguado Texts by Sandra Bostrom-Aguado ASCAP Composed in 2013, revised in 2018 1. Learning to Love 2. Looking for Love 3. Young Love 4. Decaying Love 5. Eternal Love 6. Postlude VanNessa Hulme Silbermann, soprano Jason Stoll, piano Two Songs for Soprano and Piano Adrienne Albert 1. Let Love Not Fail . text by Ivan Gallardo Composed in 2002 2. The Owl and the Pussycat . text by Edward Lear Composed in 2010, revised in 2013 Julia Hwang, soprano Victoria Kirsch, piano > > > INTERMISSION > > > 2 From “Four Love Songs” Deon Nielsen Price Texts by Robert T. Bowen ASCAP Composed in 1990, revised in 2015 1. The Connection 2. Cycle of Love Darryl Taylor, countertenor Deon Nielsen Price, piano From “Armgart” Greg Steinke Text by George Eliot ASCAP Composed in 2000, revised in 2009 Rachel Labovitch, soprano James French, piano Love Daniel Robbins Text by Joel Martinez ASCAP Composed in 2018 Rachel Labovitch, soprano Daniel Robbins, piano Son de Negros en Cuba Yalil Guerra Text by Federico García Lorca ASCAP Composed in 2018 Erica Campbell, soprano Victoria Kirsch, piano I Am in Need of Music Mark Carlson Composed in 2008 BMI 1. There Is Sweet Music Here . text by Alfred, Lord Tennyson 2. I Am in Need of Music . text by Elizabeth Bishop Marina Gomez, mezzo-soprano Victoria Kirsch, piano 3 From “Murder Ballads” Michael Glenn Williams Texts are anonymous, from American folk songs – adapted by the composer BMI Composed in 2018 1. Banks of the Ohio 2. Two Sisters Elyse Willis, soprano Michael Glenn Williams, piano From “Sacred Transitions” Russell Steinberg Texts by Rabbi Harold M. Schulweis ASCAP Composed in 2015 1. Holding On and Letting Go 2. Mirror Eyes 3. It Is Never Too Late Diana Tash, mezzo-soprano Wendy Prober, piano 4 > > > Biographies, Program Notes and Song Lyrics > > > Katherine Saxon was born in Santa Monica, California and completed her Ph.D. in music at the University of California Santa Barbara. Katherine also holds a BA from Williams College and a Masters of Music from the University of Oregon. In 2012 Katherine received first prize in the San Francisco Choral Artists’ New Voices Competition for her work Speed and Perfection. Navona Records released her compositions East of the Sun/West of the Moon and Vox Dilect Mei on the album “Polarities”. She was awarded honorable mention in the 2015 American Prize Composition Choral Music Division for Kubla Khan. Recently her mini opera 452 Jamestown Place was presented by West Edge Opera. She has attended the Oregon Bach Festival Composer’s Forum, Open Space Festival, the Atlantic Music Festival, the Bowdoin International Music Festival, New Music on the Bayou, the Banf Center for the Arts and the COSI Opera Creation Lab. The complete cycle Sea Fever sets four poems by John Masefield’s 1902 collection Salt Water Ballads. Each portrays a different mood of the sea. The second song in the cycle, “Christmas Eve at Sea,” portrays the eerie calm of the ocean at night. The supporting harmonies in the piano appear at key points, so that the silence rings in the emptiness. “Sea Fever” is a poem I remembered from my childhood. I copied it out for my father many years ago, and it is still tacked to the wall of our garage. The singer vacillates between his stubborn duplet, diving and joining the piano in its seductive triplet rhythm. In the end, the allure of the ocean draws the singer into “a quiet sleep and a sweet dream”, for now “the long trick’s over.” Christmas Eve at Sea - by John Masefield A wind is rustling “south and soft,” Cooing a quiet country tune. The calm sea sighs, and far aloft The sails are ghostly in the moon. Unquiet ripples lisp and purr, A block there pipes and chirps i’ the sheave, The wheel-ropes jar, the reef-points stir Faintly - - and it is Christmas Eve. The hushed sea seems to hold her breath, And o’er the giddy, swaying spars, Silent and excellent as Death, The dim blue skies are bright with stars. To-night beneath the dripping bows Where flashing bubbles burst and throng, The bow-wash murmurs and sighs and soughs A message from the angel’s song. 5 Sea Fever - by John Masefield I must go down to the seas again, to the lonely sea and the sky, And all I ask is a tall ship and a star to steer her by; And the wheel’s kick and the wind’s song and the white sail’s shaking, And a grey mist on the sea’s face, and a grey dawn breaking. I must go down to the seas again, for the call of the running tide Is a wild call and a clear call that may not be denied; And all I ask is a windy day with the white clouds flying, And the flung spray and the blown spume, and the sea-gulls crying. I must go down to the seas again, to the vagrant gypsy life, To the gull’s way and the whale’s way where the wind’s like a whetted knife; And all I ask is a merry yarn from a laughing fellow-rover, And quiet sleep and a sweet dream when the long trick’s over. >>>>> Los Angeles native Matthew Hetz is a composer with works performed nationally. He is a sometime piano and violin player. Hetz is the Executive Director/President of the Culver City Symphony Orchestra/Marina del Rey Symphony and is a member of the orchestra’s second violin section. He is an instructor at Santa Monica Emeritus College. Hetz is an environmental and transit advocate. Summer Roses. Thank you to NACUSA for this song concert. I am grateful for the past performances of my works in NACUSA concerts. I need to give special thanks to Richard Derby for his assistance. I look forward to the performance of “Summer Roses” by soprano Kirsten Ashley Wiest and pianist Ashley Zhang. When the NACUSA call for scores went out I decided to write new songs instead of relying on older ones. My elderly Mom recently reminisced about Heine’s “Du bist wie eine Blume” and that as a girl she would recite it to her father. This prompted me to set the poem. After setting that poem, the flowers, for no particular reason, turned into Summer Roses. The Internet search of rose poems led me to various gardens, and I plucked the three rose poems for the four-song collection. Du bist wie eine Blume - by Heinrich Heine Du bist wie eine Blume, You are so like a flower, So hold und schön und rein; So fair and pure and fine; Ich schau’ dich an und Wehmut I gaze on you, and sadness Schleicht mir ins Herz hinein. Steals through this heart of mine. Mir ist, als ob ich die Hände It is as though I should gently 6 Als Haupt dir liegen sollt’, Lay hands upon your hair, Betend, daß Gott dich erhalte Praying to God that he keep you So rein und schön und hold. So fine and pure and fair. The Rose Family - by Robert Frost The rose is a rose, And was always a rose. But the theory now goes That the apple’s a rose, And the pear is, and so’s The plum, I suppose. The dear only knows What will next prove a rose. You, of course, are a rose - But were always a rose. Sea Rose - by Hilda Doolittle Rose, harsh rose, marred and with stint of petals meagre flower, thin, sparse of leaf, more precious than a wet rose, single on a stem— you are caught in the drift. Stunted, with small leaf, you are flung on the sand, you are lifted in the crisp sand that drives in the wind. Can the spice-rose drip such acrid fragrance hardened in a leaf? 7 Roses - by George Eliot You love the roses. So do I. I wish The sky would rain down roses, as they rain From off the shaken bush. Why will it not? Then all the valley would be pink and white And soft to tread on. They would fall as light As feathers, smelling sweet; and it would be Like sleeping and like waking, all at once! >>>>> Richard Derby has a Ph.D. in music composition from the University of California Santa Barbara. In 1977-78 he held a Fulbright Fellowship to study composition with Justin Connolly at the Royal College of Music, London. In 1982 his article “Elliott Carter’s ‘Duo for Violin and Piano’“ was published in Perspectives of New Music. A Cambria Master Recordings CD of his chamber music is available from Southwest Chamber Music (swmusic.org).