Luther College Symphony Orchestra Daniel Baldwin, conductor Winter 2008 Concert Tour Spring 2010 Great Plains Tour LUTHER COLLEGE ince 1861, Luther College has and vibrant residential community placed its faith in a classic resi- purposely set apart. Our 1,000-acre Sdential, liberal arts education. campus includes frontage on the Upper We believe that providing a rigorous Iowa River, recreation trails, outdoor academic program in the context of research sites, and well-designed facili- a faith tradition prepares students for ties dedicated to teaching and learning. more than successful careers. Luther A new $20 million science laboratories graduates have a sense of a larger center has expanded opportunities for purpose—a sense that the “good life” collaborative research and learning. is one where they use their talents and Luther has a strong tradition of en- knowledge in service to others. Our gaged and experiential learning, most president, Richard Torgerson, puts it notably our study-abroad programs. this way: “It’s not just about prestige Nearly 70 percent of Luther students and success. It’s about integrity, fulfill- will study abroad before graduating, ment, and knowing that what we do placing us among the top 20 baccalau- is going to make the world a better reate colleges nationally in the number place.” of students studying abroad each year. Many students travel with Luther fac- Luther’s liberal arts curriculum begins ulty during the college’s January Term, with 178 full-time faculty who come a month-long intensive course of study from the strongest graduate programs with programs on five continents. in the United States and around the I’m convinced Dan world. They reflect the college’s ideals We believe music is central to a liberal as a Phi Beta Kappa institution—excel- arts education. As one of our conduc- Baldwin is taking lence every day in the liberal arts. With tors puts it, “Musical expression— Luther’s orchestra expertise ranging from collaborative fil- artistic expression—answers some of tering (in computer science) to a fresh our most fundamental needs as human program to new interpretation of St. Patrick from Latin beings: the need to be creative, the heights. He embodies (in classics) to biodegradable polyesters need for self-fulfillment, and the need (in chemistry), our faculty feel called for self-expression, beauty, and mean- two pillars of effective to be at a place where the attention is ingful existence.” teaching—discipline on undergraduates. The college’s 12:1 student-faculty ratio makes it possible In the end a Luther education is about and inspiration—and for professors to know their students transformation. We put our faith in a the music he pulls well and become intellectual mentors strong liberal arts education, rich cocur- and guides. And because nearly all ricular programs, and the beauty found out of his students faculty live within five miles of in place and community. Students are is nothing short of campus, they make a life here, along transformed by their four-year journey with students and colleagues. This cre- at Luther and leave here ready to make amazing. ates a strong sense of community and their mark in the world. —Rick Torgerson, President shared purpose on the Luther campus. To learn more about us, visit www. The sense of community at Luther is luther.edu or call 1-800-4 LUTHER. enhanced by the college’s picturesque location. Nestled in the bluff country of northeast Iowa, Luther is a strong 1 PROGRAM AND NOTES Overture to Rienzi Richard Wagner (1813–1883) Mother Goose Suite: Five Pieces for Children Maurice Ravel (1875–1937) Pavane of the Sleeping Beauty Tom Thumb Laideronnette, Empress of the Pagodas Conversations of Beauty and the Beast The Enchanted Garden DANIEL BALDWIN Daniel Baldwin has served as director of orchestral INTERMISSION activities at Luther College since 1997. In addition to his work as conductor of the Luther College Symphony and Chamber Orchestras and the Opera Workshop, Dr. Symphony No. 1 in E minor, Op. 39 Baldwin teaches conducting. He holds the bachelor of Jean Sibelius (1865–1957) music degree (cello) from Furman University and mas- ter of music degree (cello) and doctor of musical arts Andante, ma non troppo; Allegro energico degree (instrumental conducting) from the University Andante (ma non troppo lento) of Texas at Austin. Prior to his arrival at Luther, Bald- Scherzo—Allegro; Lento (ma non troppo) win was associate professor of music and director of Finale—Quasi una Fantasia: Andante; Allegro molto orchestras at Central Washington University in Ellens- burg, Wash. Baldwin received his formal training in string pedagogy as a teacher in the University of Texas String Project, perhaps the most comprehensive program of its kind PROGRAM NOTES in North America. Phyllis Young, director of the String Project for 35 years, was Baldwin’s cello teacher during Richard Wagner his studies at the University of Texas. He studied con- Overture to Rienzi ducting with Henry Charles Smith, Cornelius Eberhardt, Sung Kwak, Walter Dulcoux, and Fiora Contino. Born in Leipzig on May 22, 1813, Richard Wagner was a rather late bloomer, musically speaking. When Wagner at Baldwin has also served as the musical director of the fifteen decided to become a composer, he was at that time Central Kentucky Youth Orchestras and the Transylva- completely unschooled in the arts of performance and music nia Youth Orchestra of the Brevard (N.C.) Music Center, composition. He became in a very real sense a self-taught the largest summer music festival in the South. A 1991 composer, and like many self-taught composers, he never conducting fellow of the Conductors Institute of the developed certain skills normally regarded as basic to the art University of South Carolina and formerly a cellist with the Brevard Music Center Orchestra, Baldwin maintains of composition. For example, he had no professional skill on an active schedule as clinician, adjudicator, and guest any instrument. He could do little more than “pick” at the conductor. In April 2007 Daniel Baldwin accepted the piano, and he admitted that his skills as a score reader were position of musical and artistic director of the Lake generally very weak. Wagner compensated for his educational Chelan Bachfest in Chelan, Wash. He conducted the deficiencies and relatively late start through sheer effort, and Iowa All-State Orchestra in November 2009. by tapping a vast reservoir of instinct and profound musical- ity. Among the great composers, Wagner was perhaps the one On three occasions since 1997 he has traveled to who flowered latest in life. Europe with the Luther College Symphony Orchestra, enjoying month-long January residencies in Vienna, But flower he did, and it is not too much to say that Richard Austria, and performing in such venues as the Bruckner Wagner dominated the world of Western art music in the lat- Conservatory in Linz and the Vienna Konzerthaus. The Luther College Symphony Orchestra tours annually in ter half of the nineteenth century. Wagnerian opera changed the United States; since 1997, Baldwin and the Luther forever the course of music composition. As we acknowledge orchestra have completed seven major American tours, his brilliance and his extraordinary musical accomplishments, performing in at least 20 states. let us also acknowledge that by even the most generous, liberal standards of behavior, Wagner the man was a rake, and 2 an unregenerate scoundrel. Judging the man by his personal conduct, Wagner was supremely selfish, arrogant, virulently racist, amoral, hedonistic, and ruthlessly ambitious. As musi- cal director of an opera company in Magdeburg (his first post as a music professional), Wagner established a pattern of behavior that would be repeated time after time until the end of his life. He ran up enormous debts, made countless enemies, and tried to impose his will on the musical life of the company and the city. And there was also the womaniz- ing. Married for the first time in 1836, Wagner demonstrated time and again that his sexual appetites could not in any way be restrained by moral considerations, or by a sense of loyalty to spouse or friend. Many of his adventures involved younger, married women. At least one of his sweethearts was the wife of a good friend. The “von Bülow affair” is instructive. Hans DORIAN FESTIVALS AND SUMMER von Bülow was one of the most important conductors of the PROGRAMS second half of the nineteenth century. Von Bülow recognized Wagner’s genius as early as 1850, and he became one of Wag- Luther College hosts hundreds of middle and high ner’s most ardent and influential champions. Wagner proved school student musicians at seven annual Dorian the nature of his feelings toward von Bülow by carrying on Festivals and Summer Programs. Participants a six-year adulterous relationship with the conductor’s wife, receive private instruction, ensemble coaching, and Cosima (daughter of Franz Liszt). Between 1865 and 1869, performance opportunities in Luther’s own Noble von Bülow’s wife, Cosima, bore three of Richard Wagner’s Recital Hall and Center for Faith and Life. children. Von Bülow and his wife were divorced in 1870, Dorian Band Festival and in August of the same year, Wagner and Cosima were 625 participants married. And that, by the way, was not the last of Richard 3 ensembles, including select Symphonic Band Wagner’s adventures. Dorian Choral Invitational Festival Composed between 1838 and 1840, Rienzi, der Letzte der More than 450 participants Tribunen (Rienzi, the Last of the Roman Tribunes) was the composer’s third opera, and the first of his works to enjoy Dorian Keyboard Festival any sort of currency in the repertoire. Wagner composed the More than 150 participants piece in the midst of rather dire financial, professional, and Piano, organ and harpsichord personal circumstances.