Jackson, Michigan

Tuesday, March 29, 2011

BIG THANK YOU!

Ticket renewal and contributions for the 2011-2012 JSO Season "New Horizons" are 40% ahead of where they were at this time last year.  This is most encouraging news for the Board and staff of the JSO.  Renewal activities continue through April and May until tickets go on general sale June1
 

JSO Chamber Series Off In A New Direction!

Last week the JSO Chamber Series offered a "sneak preview" of next season's guest artists for the May Concert. Approximately 50 attendees enjoyed wine, cheese and crackers and the amazing talent of Brad Richter, guitar and Viktor Uzur, cello, as they navigated music from Baroque to Led Zeppelin. The audience was so impressed with their talent, they depleted the inventory of CDs Brad and Viktor had brought with them to sell.


According to those in attendance, the unusual day, Tuesday, and start time, 6:00pm was a welcome event in the middle of the week.

Earlier in the day the duo performed for 5th and 6th graders at Warner School in Spring Arbor.

Thursday, March 24, 2011

Jammin' at the JSO - April Fools Edition

April 1st is almost here! 4 bands, $4, Jackson Symphony Orchestra Weatherwax Hall, 215 W. Michigan Ave, April 1, 7:00 - 11:00.

Facebook Event Page


This months Jamming at the JSO features 4 great bands.

Omri Reid is a young Jacksonian who comes from a very musical family. His music is folky and reminiscent of Gypsy Jazz music with a modern twist. This will be Omri's first performance with a band.
Amateur Anthropologists hails from Detroit, and their music is very much in the tradition of Detroit style garage punk-rock. They recently performed at the Metro Times Blowout and were voted one of the best acts.
Long Whisker has members from all over: Jackson, Ypsilanti, and Japan. Fronted by Reagan Sova, an adjunct English Professor at JCC, and Jim Cherewick, this band has some folky, twang, and rock qualities around it. They're lyrics are steeped with quirkiness but are so catchy I know you'll enjoy it.

Streaking in Tongues is a rock band from Jackson. Ronnie Ferguson, of Jackson, performs with lots of feeling. They music ranges from blues, to really epic musical jams, and back down to soft ballads. They're really excited for this show!

On Thursday, March 31st, I'll be taking Long Whisker and Streaking in Tongues with to perform on MSU's student radio station The Impact. We will be guests on a show that features local music acts from around the state. The show starts at 8pm and goes until 10pm. Listen live at http://impact89fm.org/

Thank you for the continued support of local music!

-Aaron Wilson

Monday, March 14, 2011

Carol Ivkovich Studio at Michgan Music Teacher's Association Student Achievement Testing

Announcing the outcome of Student Achievement Testing held yesterday at MSU through the Michigan Music Teacher's Association. I took 14 students. All 14 students scored between 88%-98% on their performances, sightreading, ear training, theory and technique tests. I was very happy with their scores.:-)


Lindsay Rasmussen earned the top honors (98.5 %) in her division, and was invited to perform in an honors recital in Okemos this Friday.
Karis Darland took the top honors in her division with the highest score of all participants. She was invited to perform in an honors recital in Okemos this Friday.

Stephen Foster earned a perfect score on his performance.

Susan Hoffman and Michael Lynne Foster earned perfect scores on their technique tests.

It was a good weekend for all involved!

Carol Ivkovich

Saturday, March 12, 2011

Guild Solos - Flavors of France - March 19

If you will be attending this JSO concert by yourself (SOLO) and you would like to meet and enjoy the company of other SYMPHONY SOLOS, please join them for dinner before the concert at Knight's Steak House  located on Ferguson Road at S. Jackson Road. Food will be ordered individually from the menu. Guests are welcome.

5:15 PM First seating for persons going to Backstage Glimpses.

6:00 PM Second seating for persons NOT going to Backstage Glimpses. (You may choose to go to the 5:15 PM seating if you wish.)

7:00 PM Backstage Glimpses presented by Dr. Bruce Brown.

8:00 PM The concert begins!

Reservations by Thursday, March 17, 2011. Call the JSO Office, 782-3221.

Friday, March 11, 2011

Program Notes - Flavors of France - March 19

Program Notes
March 19, 2011
By Composer in Residence
Bruce Brown

Tonight’s concert by the JSO explores the musical “Flavors of France” which, like its culinary delights, are numerous and varied.

The French journalist Marcel Rouff, a contemporary of Debussy and Ravel, once wrote "light, refined, learned and noble, harmonious and orderly, clear and logical, the cooking of France is, in some strange manner, intimately linked to the genius of her greatest men.” The same words could easily be used to describe French music.

Composers like Claude Debussy can also sound very mystical about their music. “Music is the expression of the movement of the waters,” he once said, “the play of curves described by changing breezes.” Another time he said “music is the silence between the notes.”

We hope you enjoy tonight’s banquet of music from France!



Roma Symphony

The composer of Carmen, Georges Bizet (1838 – 1875), wrote two symphonies, both in the key of C major. The first came in a burst of youthful enthusiasm when he was a 17-year-old student at the Paris Conservatoire. He toiled on the second for eleven years, and he was probably still dissatisfied with it when he died tragically at the age of 36.

In 1857 Bizet got a break that transformed the careers of many composers; he won the Prix de Rome, which would allow him to study for two years in Rome and a year in Germany at no cost. After his stay in Rome, he spent some time touring Italy and mapped out the scheme for a symphony. The first movement was to be dedicated to the city of Rome, the second to Venice, the third to Florence and the finale to Naples.

By 1861, he had written the scherzo, which was performed poorly on January 11, 1863 and received a frosty reception. It fared better in a second performance on January 18th, but Bizet had lost his ebullient confidence and the revising process began. The work in its present form wasn’t performed until after his death.



Pavane

Gabriel Fauré (1845-1924), probably best known for his glorious Requiem, was born into the humble family of a village schoolmaster in the Ariège district in southern France. When his musical talent became apparent he was sent to Paris to study, and he became an excellent organist and a professor of composition at the Paris Conservatoire. He was forced to retire by increasing deafness, but continued to write excellent music until his death almost 20 years later.

In a letter to his wife, Fauré wrote an intriguing account of the inspiration for his Pavane: "While I was thinking about a thousand different things of no importance whatsoever, a kind of rhythmical theme in the style of a Spanish dance took form in my brain.... This theme developed by itself, became harmonized in different ways, changed and modulated; in effect, it germinated by itself."

Fauré wrote the Pavane during the summer of 1887 as a purely orchestra piece, but he soon decided to add choral parts and dance, probably to please his patron, Elisabeth, comtesse Greffulhe. The orchestral version received its première on November 25, 1888 and the choral version was heard only three days later at a concert of the Société Nationale de Musique. The full “choreographic spectacle” was first heard at a garden party held by the comtesse in the Bois de Boulogne, a beautiful park near Paris. The piece is most often performed in its purer original form, which is much more suited to the nostalgic beauty of the music.





Gymnopédie

The eccentric pianist and composer Erik Satie (1866-1925) was fond of paradoxical titles like Flabby Preludes for a Dog and Three Pieces in the Shape of a Pear. His unconventional music was often accompanied by strange performance instructions like “as light as an egg.”

Satie wrote three piano pieces called Gymnopédies in 1888. The title might refer to the war-dance festivals of ancient Sparta, known as Gymnopaedia, but the music hardly sounds like a war dance. It might just have been an exotic sounding word that caught Satie’s fancy.

By 1896, Satie had fallen on hard times and a rising star, Claude Debussy, arranged two of the Gymnopédies for orchestra to help draw attention to his friend. Some critics have suggested that Debussy changed the music from what Satie would have intended, but other scholars insist Debussy closely followed Satie’s own tastes in his orchestration.



“March to Scaffold” from Symphonie fantastique

The Symphonie fantastique of Hector Berlioz (1803-1869) is a landmark work in almost every sense of the word. The music is famous for the way Berlioz wove a poignant theme through all its movements and for innovations like the use of four timpani to simulate thunder and the first-ever inclusion of the tuba in the orchestra.

Berioz wrote a detailed program to explain his vision of the piece, saying in part: “the author imagines that a young, vibrant musician, afflicted by the sickness of spirit which a famous writer has called the wave of passions [la vague des passions], sees for the first time a woman who unites all the charms of the ideal person his imagination was dreaming of, and falls desperately in love with her…”

In the fourth movement, the March to the Scaffold, the artist, “convinced that his love is unappreciated … dreams that he has killed his beloved, that he is condemned, led to the scaffold and is witnessing his own execution…”

Berlioz wrote the Symphonie fantastique to express his love for the Irish actress Harriet Smithson after seeing her perform the role of Ophelia in Shakespeare’s Hamlet on September 11, 1827. Smithson refused to see him despite his numerous love letters, but when she heard the symphony, two years after its premiere on December 5, 1830, she was deeply flattered to be the object of such grandiose affection. The two were married on October 3, 1833, but their marriage was short and bitter. Be careful what you wish for!



Nocturnes

Music changed forever when Claude Debussy (1862-1918) appeared on the scene. “There is no theory,” he said famously, “you only have to listen,” and he proceeded to write music that his professors hated and audiences loved.

Debussy wrote his three Nocturnes within days of the dawn of the twentieth century, completing them on December 15, 1899. The movements we will hear tonight, Nuages and Fêtes, were first performed in Paris on December 9 of the following year.

In an introductory note to the music, Debussy said "The title Nocturnes is to be interpreted here in a general and, more particularly, in a decorative sense. Therefore, it is not meant to designate the usual form of the Nocturne, but rather all the various impressions and the special effects of light that the word suggests.”

Nuages, he said, “renders the immutable aspect of the sky and the slow, solemn motion of the clouds, fading away in grey tones lightly tinged with white. Fêtes, he continued, “gives us the vibrating, dancing rhythm of the atmosphere with sudden flashes of light. There is also the episode of the procession (a dazzling fantastic vision), which passes through the festive scene and becomes merged in it. But the background remains resistantly the same: the festival with its blending of music and luminous dust participating in the cosmic rhythm.”



La Valse

The music of Maurice Ravel (1875-1937) is often associated with dancing, and La Valse (“The Waltz”) was written in 1919 both as a dance and as a work about dance. Ravel said he hoped to create “a sort of apotheosis of the Viennese waltz,” but Serge Diaghilev, who had commissioned the music for his famous Ballets Russes, rejected the work saying it was not suited for the stage. Ravel was deeply hurt, and the music was not performed as a ballet until many years later.

Ravel himself said the music was inspired by the waltzes of Johann Strauss, and La Valse does capture echoes of glorious old Vienna, but it also carries a sense of despair that brings it into his own time in war-torn Europe.

Ravel also described his music with a program note inscribed on the score: "Through whirling clouds, waltzing couples may be faintly distinguished.” He wrote, “The clouds gradually scatter: one sees … an immense hall peopled with a whirling crowd. The scene is gradually illuminated. The light of the chandeliers bursts forth at the fortissimo .... Set in an imperial court, about 1855."

TICKETS - http://www.jacksonsymphony.org/ - 782-3221 - 215 W. Michigan Ave

Wednesday, March 2, 2011

JSO Announces Dates for Our 2011-2012 Season

Save these dates for the 2011-2012 series of Jackson Symphony Orchestra Concerts!

Subscription Series: New Horizons
October 8, 2011
November 12, 2011
February 4, 2012
March 17, 2012
May 5, 2012

Summer Pops location and date TBA.
Holiday Pops  - December 11

Other events and dates including a possible Halloween program and Chamber Music events will be posted when the information is complete.

Tuesday, March 1, 2011

Get Ready for Flavors of France!

Jetting off to France on March 19, the Jackson Symphony Orchestra will present a program of French music that spans the period from the late 1800s to the mid 20th Century. The program is a mix of both familiar repertoire and lesser known works.

Included are two pieces that led up to the 20th Century — Hector Berlioz’ March to the Scaffold from Symphony Fantastique, a familiar piece to anyone who knows French music, and Georges Bizet’s Roma-Suite/Symphony. This music captures the lyricism of Bizet's music in much the same way as his popular opera, Carmen.

The next four compositions on the program — Claude Debussy’s orchestration of Erik Satie's piano piece Gymnopedie, Gabriel Urbain Fauré's Pavane and masterpieces by Claude Debussy and Maurice Ravel — will bring a transition to the Impressionist period and beyond.

“Fauré's Pavane is to many the most beautiful and sublime piece of music ever written,” said Music Director Stephen Osmond.

The Debussy selection, Nocturnes, isn't as well known as his Afternoon of a Faun or La Mer but the beauty of the music is no less profound, Osmond said.

The program will conclude with La Valse, Ravel's interpretation of the collapse of post-romantic Europe. Ravel described La Valse with the following preface to the score: "Through whirling clouds, waltzing couples may be faintly distinguished. The clouds gradually scatter: one sees at letter A an immense hall peopled with a whirling crowd. The scene is gradually illuminated. The light of the chandeliers bursts forth at the fortissimo letter B. Set in an imperial court, about 1855."

“The evening will transport the listener from the diabolical to the ethereal and many colorful stops in between,” Osmond said.
Titled Flavors of France, this is the 4th concert in the JSO’s 2010-2011 Subscription Concert Series. The 2011-2012 program will be announced at this concert. The 5th and final concert of this season will be on May 7 and will feature the premiere of Bruce Brown’s latest opus. Brown is JSO’s Composer-in-Residence. Also on the program May 7 are Pyotr Illyich Tchaikovsky’s Capriccio Italien, Joseph Haydn’s Sinfonia Concertante and Charles Griffes’ Poem for Flute and Orchestra. Several JSO members will perform solos, including principal flutist Richard Sherman.

Both concerts begin at 8 p.m. at the Potter Center Music Hall at Jackson Community College.

The March 19 concert is sponsored by Great Lakes Home Health and Hospice and the May 7 concert is sponsored by Willis & Jurasek, CPAs & Consultants. Guest artist sponsor is Melling Automotive.

An after-concert party, Une Soiree en France, will be held at Johnstone Supply, 903 Belden Road, immediately following the March 19 concert. Erin Mazur and Marco Pullan are sponsoring late-night refreshments ala francais. The Jackson French Quarter Dixieland Band will entertain. Special ticket packages are being offered. Two concert tickets and party pass for two is $35. JSO season ticket holders may attend the party for $15 per couple.

Individual tickets for the March 19 concert are $18, $27, $32. They may be purchased online at www.JacksonSymphony.org; by phone at 517-782-3221; or in person at the JSO Box Office, 215 W. Michigan Ave., downtown Jackson. All ticket holders are invited to attend the complimentary and highly acclaimed pre-concert lecture series hosted by Dr. Bruce Brown, JSO Composer-in-Residence. Backstage Glimpses takes place at 7 p.m. in the Federer Rooms off the main Floor Lobby in the Potter Center.

NOTE: The Jackson Symphony Orchestra is a community resource providing performances of the classics and popular music, a community music school with private and group instruction and numerous educational programs for students of all ages. The organization owns a 30,000-square-foot facility in the heart of downtown Jackson which not only serves as an administrative, rehearsal, and recital performance space for the orchestra but also is home to the Jackson Youth Symphony, the Jackson Chorale and Children's Choir, the Michigan Shakespeare Festival and JSO Community String Ensemble. The orchestra primarily performs at the world-class Music Hall of the Jackson Community College Potter Center and other venues in town including several churches, the County Fairgrounds and Michigan Theatre.

Concert Organist

The Music Department of the First United Methodist Church, 275 West Michigan Avenue is excited to announce that Ken Cowan, a Concert Organist on Staff at Westminster Choir College in Princeton, New Jersey will be coming to the First UMC to present a concert of Organ Music. This is Mr. Cowan’s second recital on the church's Ott Organ. His first was just after the organ was installed in 2002 as a way of introducing the instrument to the Jackson community. Mr. Cowan is a very exciting recitalist presenting most all of his selections by memory. This concert is scheduled for Sunday, April 3 at 3:00pm. While this concert is free and open to the public a Free-will offering will be most gratefully accepted.


What a wonderful opportunity to share this wonderful instrument with the community. We hope that you will plan now to join us and will invite your family and friends to join you!

Tim Meunier
Director of Music
First United Methodist Church
Jackson, MI