Local indie artists/bands at the JSO (215 W. Michigan), Friday, June 4, 6:30-11:30 p.m.
Featuring:
SAFE OR BRAVE
IF I WERE THE SUN
FIELDS OF INDUSTRY
and the return of....CARDBOARD CATHEDRAL!!!!!
$4 at the door ($1 per band, support local artist!) REMEMBER, this is the pilot for this program, therefore, IF YOU WANT THIS TO KEEP HAPPENING YOU NEED TO COME TO THE SHOW! For those of you who think you can't scrounge around and come up with only $4 to support local musicians and hear some great music, think again. Hope to see you all there!
Doors open at 6:30.
Check out the facebook event page at:
http://www.facebook.com/#!/event.php?eid=121312634546048
Wednesday, April 28, 2010
Tuesday, April 27, 2010
Encore
For those of you who were curious about the encore Mr. Votapek played, it was Earl Wild's arrangement of Gershwin's "Embraceable You."
60th Anniversary Season Finale
If, indeed, "pride goeth before the fall" I'm in deep trouble. The Jackson Symphony Orchestra finished its 60th Anniversary Season in amazing fashion. The entire program beginning with a percussion trio and ending with Gershwin's Concerto in F was performed near to perfection. The orchestra performed at a level of which any community of any size would have been proud. An awesome line-up of soloists including current concertmaster, Xie Min, and past concertmaster Philip Mason and his grandson, Brian Hodges, were exceptional. Soloists within the orchestra Jan Eberle, oboe/English horn, principal trumpet Joel Shaner, and cellist David Peshlakai were equally impressive. Pianist Ralph Votapek, however, performed to and beyond perfection in Gershwin's Concerto in F. A flawless technique and exhuberant style brought the orchestra along to one of the finest perfomances I have been fortunate to lead in the 32 years I have been the music director of this group. The audience was terrific as well their thunderous applause including after the first movement of the concerto when to not express their enthusiasm and appreciation would have been an unnatural act and the most spontaneous standing ovation I can recall.
Bravi JSO musicians, soloists and audience.
Stephen Osmond
Bravi JSO musicians, soloists and audience.
Stephen Osmond
Thursday, April 22, 2010
Former Musicians, Board Members and Event Chairs
Former Musicians, Board Members and Event Chairs - please let us know if you are attending the April 24 concert so we can recognize you at the concert! http://www.jacksonsymphony.org/apr_24_proms.html#honorees
Wednesday, April 21, 2010
Jackson Symphony on 90.5 Classical
The Jackson Symphony Orchestra will be heard on 90.5 Classical on Thursday 4/22 and Friday 4/23:
Thursday at about 12:15pm, Bizet's "Jeux d'enfants" Suite (recorded March 2008)
Friday at about 12:15pm (recorded March 2008), three movements from Grieg's "Holberg" Suite (recorded November 2009)
and Friday in the 3pm hour, Ravel's "Le Tombeau de Couperin" (recorded February 2010).
Stephen Osmond conducts all three performances.
The Jackson Symphony will be giving their final concert of the season this Saturday night at 8 at the Potter Center, Jackson Community College, featuring Ralph Votapek in the Gershwin Piano Concerto and more.
Thursday at about 12:15pm, Bizet's "Jeux d'enfants" Suite (recorded March 2008)
Friday at about 12:15pm (recorded March 2008), three movements from Grieg's "Holberg" Suite (recorded November 2009)
and Friday in the 3pm hour, Ravel's "Le Tombeau de Couperin" (recorded February 2010).
Stephen Osmond conducts all three performances.
The Jackson Symphony will be giving their final concert of the season this Saturday night at 8 at the Potter Center, Jackson Community College, featuring Ralph Votapek in the Gershwin Piano Concerto and more.
Wednesday, April 14, 2010
Mustang for Sale!
1970 FORD MUSTANG FOR SALE! (Proceeds benefit JSO.) Bids accepted until May 1, 2010. Minimum bid $13,999. (Appraised value $23,750) http://www.jacksonsymphony.org/
Monday, April 12, 2010
Program Notes: April 24
Program Notes
April 24, 2010
By Composer in Residence Bruce Brown
Concerto in F
On February 12, 1924, George Gershwin (1898-1937) took the stage in New York’s Aeolian Hall with the Paul Whiteman Orchestra for one of the most famous concerts in history. The partly improvised debut of his new composition, Rhapsody in Blue, electrified the audience and launched one of the most loved pieces of American music.
A very interested member of that audience was Walter Damrosch, the conductor of the New York Symphony Orchestra. The very next day Damrosch asked Gershwin to write a piano concerto for the NYSO.
At that point, Gershwin didn’t have the formal training in advanced composition, harmony and orchestration that he would seek later, so he bought a stack of books on theory, concerto form and orchestration and taught himself!
Gershwin was also under contract to write three Broadway musicals, so he wasn’t able to start sketching the concerto until May of 1925.
On July 22, 1925, after returning from a trip to London, he started sketches on a two piano
score for a piece tentatively titled “New York Concerto.” A friend, Ernest Hutcheson, arranged for Gershwin to use a secluded cabin at the Chautauqua Institution, and no one was allowed to violate Gershwin’s privacy before four p.m. Gershwin made rapid progress and finished the first movement in July, the second in August and the third in September. The full orchestration was completed on November 10, 1925.
Gershwin hired an orchestra to read through the piece later that month, and at Damrosch’s suggestion he made a few cuts and revisions. Gershwin played the première of the new concerto on December 3, in a soldout Carnegie Hall, with Damrosch conducting the NYSO.
The public loved the piece, but the reviews were mixed. The critics couldn’t classify the music as classical or jazz and seemed a bit baffled. Contemporary composers were also split in their opinions. Igor Stravinsky thought the concerto was a work of genius, but Sergei Prokofiev was dismissive. Sergei Diaghilev of the Ballets Russes said it was “good jazz, but bad Liszt.”
Damrosch wrote a colorful program note for the concert that showed his unmistakable admiration for Gershwin’s marriage of jazz and classical styles: “…George Gershwin seems to have accomplished this miracle. He has done it boldly by dressing this extremely independent and uptodate young lady [jazz] in the classical garb of a concerto. Yet he has not detracted one whit from her fascinating personality. He is the prince who has taken Cinderella by the hand and openly proclaimed her a princess to the astonished world, no doubt to the fury of her envious sisters.”
Concerto in A Minor for Violin, Cello and Orchestra, Op. 102
Few composers have contributed as much great music to the symphonic repertoire
as Johannes Brahms (1833-1897).
Brahms’ inspired output includes a monumental violin concerto, two wonderful piano concertos, four stunning symphonies, several colorful overtures and several other pieces, all of which reflect his own, unique style. Throughout his life Brahms labored long and hard before he was satisfied with any composition. He hesitated for many years before writing a symphony, and when he finished his first, he was fortythree years old. At that age, Beethoven had written all but
one of his nine symphonies!
Brahms wrote his “Double Concerto” for Violin and Cello in 1887. It was his last work in the concerto genre and his final composition for orchestra. Brahms’ biographer Malcolm MacDonald wrote that this piece was “without question the most Romantic of all his concertos, perhaps of all his orchestral works, in the way it springs from the nature of the instruments themselves.”
The two solo parts are treated as equals, with the cellist enjoying the lead role in introducing many of the themes, but the two instruments contrast greatly in sound. Inevitably, this suggests a conversation, and it is easy to imagine a dialogue between a man and a woman. In MacDonald’s words, “…it is hardly fanciful to characterize the Double Concerto as virtually continuous love music.”
One interesting footnote is that this piece played an important role in healing the friendship between Brahms and Joseph Joachim. Joachim was a famous violin virtuoso who had worked closely with Brahms for many years. The two men traveled together extensively on concert tours and had been very close until a quarrel, seven years earlier, had come between them.
The Double Concerto was first played October 18, 1887, in Cologne by Joachim and cellist Robert Hausman with Brahms at the piano. Brahms gave his handwritten score to Joachim with the inscription "To him for whom it was written," and Joachim became an enthusiastic promoter of the piece. Their bitterness was soon forgotten.
April 24, 2010
By Composer in Residence Bruce Brown
Concerto in F
On February 12, 1924, George Gershwin (1898-1937) took the stage in New York’s Aeolian Hall with the Paul Whiteman Orchestra for one of the most famous concerts in history. The partly improvised debut of his new composition, Rhapsody in Blue, electrified the audience and launched one of the most loved pieces of American music.
A very interested member of that audience was Walter Damrosch, the conductor of the New York Symphony Orchestra. The very next day Damrosch asked Gershwin to write a piano concerto for the NYSO.
At that point, Gershwin didn’t have the formal training in advanced composition, harmony and orchestration that he would seek later, so he bought a stack of books on theory, concerto form and orchestration and taught himself!
Gershwin was also under contract to write three Broadway musicals, so he wasn’t able to start sketching the concerto until May of 1925.
On July 22, 1925, after returning from a trip to London, he started sketches on a two piano
score for a piece tentatively titled “New York Concerto.” A friend, Ernest Hutcheson, arranged for Gershwin to use a secluded cabin at the Chautauqua Institution, and no one was allowed to violate Gershwin’s privacy before four p.m. Gershwin made rapid progress and finished the first movement in July, the second in August and the third in September. The full orchestration was completed on November 10, 1925.
Gershwin hired an orchestra to read through the piece later that month, and at Damrosch’s suggestion he made a few cuts and revisions. Gershwin played the première of the new concerto on December 3, in a soldout Carnegie Hall, with Damrosch conducting the NYSO.
The public loved the piece, but the reviews were mixed. The critics couldn’t classify the music as classical or jazz and seemed a bit baffled. Contemporary composers were also split in their opinions. Igor Stravinsky thought the concerto was a work of genius, but Sergei Prokofiev was dismissive. Sergei Diaghilev of the Ballets Russes said it was “good jazz, but bad Liszt.”
Damrosch wrote a colorful program note for the concert that showed his unmistakable admiration for Gershwin’s marriage of jazz and classical styles: “…George Gershwin seems to have accomplished this miracle. He has done it boldly by dressing this extremely independent and uptodate young lady [jazz] in the classical garb of a concerto. Yet he has not detracted one whit from her fascinating personality. He is the prince who has taken Cinderella by the hand and openly proclaimed her a princess to the astonished world, no doubt to the fury of her envious sisters.”
Concerto in A Minor for Violin, Cello and Orchestra, Op. 102
Few composers have contributed as much great music to the symphonic repertoire
as Johannes Brahms (1833-1897).
Brahms’ inspired output includes a monumental violin concerto, two wonderful piano concertos, four stunning symphonies, several colorful overtures and several other pieces, all of which reflect his own, unique style. Throughout his life Brahms labored long and hard before he was satisfied with any composition. He hesitated for many years before writing a symphony, and when he finished his first, he was fortythree years old. At that age, Beethoven had written all but
one of his nine symphonies!
Brahms wrote his “Double Concerto” for Violin and Cello in 1887. It was his last work in the concerto genre and his final composition for orchestra. Brahms’ biographer Malcolm MacDonald wrote that this piece was “without question the most Romantic of all his concertos, perhaps of all his orchestral works, in the way it springs from the nature of the instruments themselves.”
The two solo parts are treated as equals, with the cellist enjoying the lead role in introducing many of the themes, but the two instruments contrast greatly in sound. Inevitably, this suggests a conversation, and it is easy to imagine a dialogue between a man and a woman. In MacDonald’s words, “…it is hardly fanciful to characterize the Double Concerto as virtually continuous love music.”
One interesting footnote is that this piece played an important role in healing the friendship between Brahms and Joseph Joachim. Joachim was a famous violin virtuoso who had worked closely with Brahms for many years. The two men traveled together extensively on concert tours and had been very close until a quarrel, seven years earlier, had come between them.
The Double Concerto was first played October 18, 1887, in Cologne by Joachim and cellist Robert Hausman with Brahms at the piano. Brahms gave his handwritten score to Joachim with the inscription "To him for whom it was written," and Joachim became an enthusiastic promoter of the piece. Their bitterness was soon forgotten.
Wednesday, April 7, 2010
Music History 101 Date Change
Due to unforeseen scheduling conflict Music Appreciation 101 will start one week later than originally advertised. Classes will begin on April 26. We apologize for any inconvenience.
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