Robert Vodnoy, Music Director and Conductor Johanna Fincher, soprano Aaron Romm, trumpet Nicholas Arbolino, English horn December 10, 2019, 7:30 p.m. Church of the Redeemer Merry, Merry, Sarasota! Christmas Eve Suite Niels Gade Christmas Cantata Allesandro Scarlatti Siegfried Idyll Richard Wagner Intermission Symphony no. 26 (Lamentations) Joseph Haydn Quiet City Aaron Copland Sandman Song and Evening Song Engelbert Humperdinck Charlie Brown Christmas Vince Guaraldi and George Mendelson/arr. David Pugh White Christmas Irving Berlin/arr. Bruce Chase A Mad Russian Christmas Paul O’Neill, Robert Kinkel, Pyotr Ilych Tchaikovsky/arr. Bob Philips Season Sponsors: Great Music—Great Space Concert Series Funded in part by an Arts and Cultural Alliance of Sarasota County’s Opportunity Grant, powered by the State of the Arts Florida license plates Orchestra Personnel Concertmaster: David Qi—first season playing Concertmaster with the chamber orchestra. David plays violin in the Sarasota Orchestra. Principal Second Violin: Laurie Vodnoy-Wright has been Principal Second Violin since the orchestra’s inception. She is also the orchestra’s Personnel Manager and Librarian. Laurie has performed throughout the United States, Austria and Israel. Violin 1: Margot Zarzycka—first season with the chamber orchestra. Margot plays violin in the Sarasota Orchestra and is a violinist in the Sarasota Bay Arts Piano Trio. Violin 2: Shawna Trost has played in the chamber orchestra since its inception. She plays violin in the Sarasota Orchestra. Principal Viola: Sun-Young Gemma Shin—first season with the chamber orchestra. Sun-Young plays violin in The Venice Symphony Orchestra, and is Associate Concertmaster of the Champaign-Urbana Symphony Orchestra (Illinois). Viola: Craig Hunting has played in the chamber orchestra since 2018. Craig plays violin in The Venice Symphony and the Lakeside Players. Principal Cello: Alfred Gratta—first season with the chamber orchestra. Alfred plays cello in The Florida Orchestra, and is Principal Cellist of the Saint Petersburg Opera. Cello: Leo LaBrecque—second season with the chamber orchestra. Leo plays cello in The Venice Symphony. Double Bass: Christopher Riley—second season with the chamber orchestra. Christopher is Principal Bass of The Venice Symphony. Flute: Carmen Bannon first performed with the Chamber Orchestra on its inaugural concert in December, 2017. She plays flute in the Sarasota Orchestra and the Charlottesville Opera. Oboe 1: Nicholas Arbolino has played Principal Oboe in the Chamber Orchestra since 2017, and has been a featured soloist with the chamber orchestra every year. Oboe 2: Lane Lederer—first season with the chamber orchestra. He is Assistant-Principal Oboe of The Florida Orchestra, and Principal Oboe in the St. Petersburg Opera. Clarinet 1: Calvin Falwell—first season with the chamber orchestra. He plays Clarinet in the Sarasota Orchestra, Charlottesville Opera, and Colorado Music Festival. Clarinet 2: Asher Carlson—first season with the chamber orchestra. Asher is Third Clarinet and Bass Clarinet in The Venice Symphony. Bassoon: Janet Harris—first season with the chamber orchestra. Janet played bassoon on the chamber orchestra’s evening of chamber music in 2018. She is Principal Bassoon of the Lakeside Chamber Players, Atlantic Classical Orchestra, and Charlotte Symphony. Horn 1: Joshua Roy Horne—first season with the chamber orchestra. Joshua is Co-principal Horn of the Sarasota Orchestra, and Principal Horn of the Charlottesville Opera. Horn 2: Troy Messner—first season with the chamber orchestra. Troy plays horn in The Venice Symphony. Trumpet: Aaron Romm has played trumpet with the chamber orchestra since its inception. He plays trumpet in The Venice Symphony and is a trumpet instructor at State College of Florida. Percussion: Dean Anderson—first season with the chamber orchestra. Dean is Principal Percussionist of the Punta Gorda Symphony and a percussionist in the Venice Symphony. He is a former percussionist with the Boston Pops. Harpsichord/Piano: Ann Stephenson-Moe has played with the chamber orchestra since its inception. She is the Organist/Choirmaster at the Church of the Redeemer, the Music Director and Organist at Temple Israel, and a major musical force in the greater Sarasota area as harpsichordist, accompanist, organist, and conductor. 2 Program Notes By Robert Vodnoy Niels Gade (1817-1890): Christmas Eve Suite. Danish-born Gade was a contemporary of Felix Mendelssohn and taught at the Leipzig Conservatory. Gade was the most important Danish composer of the 19th century. He conducted the premiere of Mendelssohn’s Violin Concerto in E Minor due to Mendelssohn’s failing health. This charming suite is based on the composer’s children’s piano pieces. The final movement is a setting of a Christmas poem by Hans Christian Anderson. Allesandro Scarlatti (1660-1725): Christmas Cantata (Cantata Pastorale per la Nativita di Nostro Signore Gesu Cristo). Scarlatti was a Baroque composer, best known for his operas and chamber cantatas. He was the father of Domenico Scarlatti, the famed keyboard composer, and the founder of the Neapolitan school of opera. He was the favorite composer of the Medici House. Scarlatti composed this cantata to be performed during the Christmas season in the great Roman houses of the 18th century. The charming text, written by Cardinal Antonio Ottoboni, tells the story of the Nativity. The cantata was premiered in 1705 and consists of a brief overture followed by three short arias, each introduced by a recitative. Richard Wagner (1813-1883): Siegfried Idyll. The great German opera composer wrote this charming tone poem as a birthday present to his wife Cosima Liszt Wagner, whose birthday is on Christmas Eve. Wagner surprised her with this birthday/Christmas present which he performed with a group of musician-friends at dawn in their home in Tribschen. He created this work using themes from Siegfried, the third opera of his Ring Cycle. Siegfried was also the name of Richard and Cosima’s young son, so the piece had a special meaning for them. The work opens with serene and lyrical melodies and blossoms into the spritely middle section which directly quotes themes from the opera which portray the young Siegfried, and then returns to the idyllic atmosphere of the opening section. Joseph Haydn (1732-1809): Symphony No. 26 (Lamentations). This brief and emotional symphony was composed in 1768 and was known for many years as Haydn’s Christmas Symphony. H. C. Robbins Landon believes that during Haydn’s tenure as music director at the Esterhazy Palaces, it may have been performed during the Lenten season because of the chorale tunes used. Its energetic first movement, serene middle movement and graceful Minuet-finale make a perfect opening work for the second part of the concert. 3 Aaron Copland (1900-1990): Quiet City. This gorgeous tone poem for trumpet, English horn and strings is based on music Copland wrote for a play of the same title. The play, by Irwin Shaw, was produced in 1939. Copland extracted 10 minutes of music from the score he wrote for the play and premiered it in 1941. The evocative music ranges from Copland’s Americana style to passages which are jazz- and blues- inspired. Copland observed that "Quiet City seems to have become a musical entity, superseding the original reasons for its composition.” Engelbert Humperdinck (1854-1921): “Sandman Song” and “Evening Song” from Hansel and Gretel. This lovely scene occurs in Act I of the opera as Hansel and Gretel, lost in the woods, prepare to go to sleep. The Sandman visits them and sprinkles sleep-dust in their eyes. It is followed by the Evening Song, sung by Hansel and Gretel in the opera, which calls for angels to watch over them. Humperdinck was Wagner’s assistant at Bayreuth, and composed some of the transition music in Parsifal. Hansel and Gretel is his most famous and successful work. Vince Guaraldi (1928-1976): A Charlie Brown Christmas. Television producer Lee Mendelson heard Guaraldi’s “Cast Your Fate to the Wind” while riding in a taxi-cab in L.A. He knew immediately that this was the type of music he wanted for the first Charlie Brown Christmas Special. Guaraldi composed “Linus and Lucy” in two weeks, performing a version of it over the phone to Mendelson. He went on to write the music for seventeen Peanuts specials as well as the animated feature. Irving Berlin (1888-1989): White Christmas. It is believed that Berlin wrote the song in 1940 in warm La Quinta, California, while staying at the La Quinta Hotel, a frequent Hollywood retreat also favored by writer-director-producer Frank Capra. The Arizona Biltmore also claims the song was written there! Berlin often stayed up all night writing. One morning, he told his secretary, "Grab your pen and take down this song. I just wrote the best song I've ever written—heck, I just wrote the best song that anybody's ever written!" Berlin was right! The song was released in 1942 and caught the ear of American soldiers stationed around the world during World War II. The Bing Crosby version is the best-selling record of all time, with 50 million copies sold. Paul O’Neill (1956-2017) and Robert Kinkel: A Mad Russian Christmas. Paul O’Neill was an American composer, lyricist, producer, and songwriter. Among other bands, O'Neill helmed Aerosmith's Classics Live I and II albums before beginning a relationship with the band Savatage. This introduced him to Bob Kinkel and Al Pitrelli, who all became original collaborators in the Trans-Siberian Orchestra. Robert Kinkel is a co-creator/co-producer/co- composer and touring keyboardist for the Trans-Siberian Orchestra. The piece is a mash-up of tunes from Pyotr Ilych Tchaikovsky’s Nutcracker Suite, based on “Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy” and “Trepak.” 4 Artist Biographies Joanna Fincher has appeared as a vocal soloist in Germany, Austria, Hungary, Scotland, and the Czech Republic.