2024 Winter Series Concerts

Additional Notes on the Program

Prelude String
Youth
MYSE
Symphonette
Debut
Junior

Prelude String Orchestra

Reels and Reverie – Alan Lee Silva

Prelude String Orchestra, directed by Wesley Hunter, opens our Winter Series performances today, and with no better piece than Reels and Reverie. The work is in an upbeat 3-meter, bursting out of the gate with a proud, declamatory statement with a dance-like rhythm. Melodies speed up into a driving triplet, while chordal ideas in the lower strings keep the time. Listen to when the orchestra plays rhythmically in unison, and how much stomping, exciting energy they provide. This, contrasted with the lyrical middle section, makes the work an upbeat and dramatic work beginning to end.

Lullaby to the Moon – Brian Balmages

Prelude shifts to a lyrical, choir-like sound with Brian Balmages’s calming Lullaby to the Moon. The work is a mostly comforting and wide-sounding ode to the ever-changing but consistent symbol of the nighttime. Listen throughout the work as Balmages layers rich, elegant chords over phrase beginnings of mere isolated whispers from the upper strings. A few minutes in he chops up the softness with trembling, repeated notes, with the same lush, lyrical chords over the top that build and build into a stunning moment of silence. We end with the softness of the piece’s introduction, a calm night’s sky turned slowly amber as the sun rises and the moon fades away.

Voyager by Soon Hee Newbold

Soon Hee Newbold’s epic Voyager closes out Prelude’s program today. Soon Hee Newbold writes some pretty epic music for orchestras, Voyager being no exception–listen immediately for the unison eighth notes in the strings that build a sense of excitement and journey. Then, the melody evolves into a cinematic, soaring statement. As opposed to a slower, contrasting middle section, Voyager instead has a sassy melody over plucked strings in the center. It evokes a pirate ship full of storybook characters, modifying our understanding from a voyager in the sky with the work’s introduction to now one in the sea. The entire world and the stars are Newbold’s canvas: listen to how she sends the work off into the galaxy by the piece’s end.

Youth Symphony Orchestra

Pareidolia and Other Habits — Bobby Ge

Mr. Ge’s new work is presented today as part of the 2022 Barlow Consortium Grand Prize. SYSO’s performance this afternoon is the world premiere of this exciting new work by an up-and-coming composer sure to make lifelong waves in the industry. We are honored to share its first presentation in the public concert hall under Maestro Molano’s direction. Read below for Mr. Ge’s notes on his new work for orchestra.

Humans have a fascinating tendency to search for meaning or patterns in places where there might not be any. Be them faces in the clouds (pareidolia), coincidental events aligning with birthdays (synchronicity), or backward messages hidden in metal albums (patternicity), such moments of projected meaning have entered into the stuff of legend. This kind of magical thinking is well studied in psychology, anthropology, and beyond, perhaps because of the myriad truths it reveals about us as a species.

To me, pareidolia – finding meaning in nebulous stimuli – speaks to a natural desire for communication. There is a genuine thrill in believing one has deciphered an encoded message, especially when the implied author seems to have coyly concealed their words. From the quotidian (the chocolate chips in my muffin look like my cat, Whiskers) to the silly (someone embedded Donkey Kong in this AI-generated landscape) to the grandiose (the stars have arranged themselves into the face of God), receiving these supposed messages can make one feel special – like they’ve discovered a secret language.

Pareidolia and Other Habits is a piece about finding meaning in the smallest of gestures. The work is built out of small, simple ideas that ripple and reverberate across the orchestra, echoing to and fro between instrumental sections. Individual string harmonics prefigure a vibraphone tune; dust-like, particulate sounds gather into ferocious tuttis; melodic motifs stretch and compress capriciously, notes dropping in and out at will. As vivid and dramatic as the music is, though, the piece was written without any program or image in mind. Just as we might see faces in rock formations, we try (and often are able) to derive story, emotion, and meaning from purely instrumental, abstract music. This piece, ultimately, is a celebration of that.

This piece was commissioned by the Barlow Endowment Fund for Music Composition at Brigham Young University as the winner of the 2022 Barlow Prize.

The Planets Suite — Gustav Holst

I. Mars, the Bringer of War
II. Venus, the Bringer of Peace
III. Mercury, the Winged Messenger
IV. Uranus, the Magician
V. Neptune, the Mystic
VI. Saturn, the Bringer of Old Age
VII. Jupiter, the Bringer of Jollity

Today’s performance of The Planets by legendary late-Romantic British composer Gustav Holst (1874-1934) is a real treat, presented alongside Dr. Ricardo L Restrepo, NASA Mission Design Engineer, with special guests the “Neptune Choir,” conducted by Jacob Winkler of Northwest Boychoir & Vocalpoint! Seattle. Today’s performance will highlight the full range of the work, all its colorful themes and the overarching concepts informing Holst’s pen. Including imagery of the planets in question presented by a renowned NASA scientist, there is a beautiful contrast between the astrological and the astronomical — a modern, life-filled look at the interplay between science and art.

But before we even get into that — Did you know that SYSO performed the Seattle premiere of The Planets back in 1963? Six decades later, the work continues to inspire and return home to concert halls across the world. We are honored today to perform the iconic work again today, alongside the world-premiere of a new work that is also marinated in the expansive dye of the human mind, and our deep, internal instinct to connect with something greater.

Holst was very specific that each movement in his Planets is representative of the astrological associations of these planets, and not of the physical bodies nor the god-like characters with the same names. Holst developed an interest in astrology after the turn of the century, but was somewhat embarrassed to admit this. He apparently loved providing readings for his close friends and confidantes, calling the ability to attune one’s fortune to the stars through complex analysis his “pet trick.” It’s unclear why Holst felt embarrassed by this, but perhaps the growth of the modern world, new technological developments which were rapidly modifying society simultaneously, drove him to the ethereal and that impulse resulted in shame. The artist remains ever critical and hardly satisfied.

Now, the music. Listen to how each movement captures the energy of the ruling planet with its unique character. Mars, for example, the symbol of war for as long as history can tell, is a driving Allegro. Venus, the second brightest star in the sky, restores the soundscape to one more calm and soft. Mercury, the “thinker” in astrology, is represented through a quick scherzo, time meters changing in rapid succession to create a sense of unpredictability and movement.

Neptune, invisible to the naked eye, is the astrological connection to the mystic. It embodies the void, and its long distance from our planet suggests its ability to connect across worlds. The use of the choir, very often omitted in modern performances of the full suite, is a very apt addition by Holst: the lush, indescribably moving texture of the human voice as instrument has long been used to capture the otherworldly–whether in the very first cathedrals or today in composer Eric Whitacre’s stacked, Rubik’s cube-like harmonies, there is a complexity to the human voice in both its familiarity and in its ability to transcend the mundane as instrument. When planning this season, a SYSO staff member asked if Maestro Molano thought the choir, often omitted in modern-day productions or excerpts of the work, was essential to perform The Planets. His response? “If you want to do it right, yes.”

We’ll end the suite today with Jupiter, perhaps the most iconic and consistently programmed movement from the work. Listen to the textural, quick running notes in the upper string that set the stage for a massive, soaring melody introduced by the brass. This melody is passed around the orchestra, supplemented with moments of rhythmic unison across the ensemble that burst with energy and pride.

Music Youth Southeast

Symphony No. 41 “Jupiter” – WA Mozart

Mozart’s 41st Symphony—titled “Jupiter” likely by contemporaries as a marketing scheme, not because Mozart wished it to be—is less anxious than the iconic 40th Symphony preceding it. It takes on many other characteristics: proud, sly, lyrical, declamatory.

The Symphony’s final movement, excerpted today, begins with a four-note motif which serves as a ground for the rest of the movement. The music continues with introductions of little ideas, separate characters and feelings which are given just enough time to make themselves known, then disappear. In the coda, the work’s finale, they all return. Mozart layers all these concepts over each other in a brilliant melodic counterpoint, displaying all the talent deep within Mozart’s compositional voice: all the character, brassy-ness, and drama.

Moonlighting – Deborah Baker Monday

Moonlighting is a fun twist on a very-familiar tune. Inspired by Beethoven’s iconic and epic work for piano Moonlight Sonata, the work captures the mystery of the night. Baker Monday manipulates Beethoven’s piece by setting it to the style of a tango. Listen for the work’s unmistakable melody over some fun, upbeat rhythms in the lower strings. The orchestra moves and sways, as if Baker Monday is highlighting the fact that nighttime for many is representative of life, creative energy, and excitement–not just the standard Romantic Beethov-ian brooding by candlelight.

Orange Jam by Jeffrey Bishop

Orange Jam is a piece that bursts with character right from the first down beat. Listen to the rocking, exciting use of a glissando – created by string players sliding their left hand up or down a string to hit every pitch in between starting and end points – to open the piece. This technique is contrasted with repeated sixteenth notes, giving the work a strange kind of oblong melting groove. There is an exciting build and growth throughout the work that expands upon the ideas that start it. Additionally, because of its use of the key of G, and the fact that every string instrument has a string on that pitch, the orchestra really gets an opportunity to ring out across the stage into the audience from beginning to end.

Symphonette Orchestra

Valdres March — Johannes Hanssen, arranged by Kathy Fishburn

*- Note – today’s program includes an error in the composer’s first name.

The Valdres March, written by Norwegian composer Johannes Hansen, is an energetic work programmed often for ensembles of nearly every instrumentation. It is a pretty classic and typical-sounding march, featuring a distinctive upbeat in the lower voices to start. Valdres gains a lot of fun and character in its surprising chromatic slips, expressive ornamentation in the upper voices, and of course, driving and igniting percussion. What makes Valdres unique is its source material: the use of Norwegian-specific melodies and settings run throughout the piece. It takes place in three separate styles and inspirations: the first, a bugle call from a battalion in Valdres, a region between Oslo and Bergen; the second, a melody from a classic fiddle tune; the final a melody from a beloved Norwegian folk tune. This places the work alongside other marches of its era, full of nationalist connection and hard-wired to inspire.

“Irish Tune” from County Derry — Percy Grainger

To round off your St. Paddy’s Day, Symphonette conductor Amy Stevenson takes advantage once again of an opportunity to leverage the thematic with a classic, gorgeous Irish tune.

Irish Tune is an instantly-soothing and lyrical pastoral work. Listen for the sophisticated and simple beauty of the leading voices as they are lifted up and complicated by harmonic voices weaving in and out underneath them. The overall effect is incredibly expressive music with a motivating rise and fall. Irish Tune has some beautiful harmonies and pairing of voices — opt colors to end the classic holiday of the calming and hopeful green hues of Ireland.

The Mandalorian —Ludwig Göransson, arr. by Blaire Ziegenhagel (SYSO alumna)

There are a ton of obvious reasons why it’s so cool to program music from the Star Wars universe. Anything you hear from the inter-stellar smash hit franchise is, simply put, epic. One of our favorite reasons for hearing The Mandalorian today is we get to hear another great arrangement by Blaire Ziegenhagel, a SYSO alumna (cello) and a brilliant composer and arranger. Blaire, thank you for sharing your music with us–every work of yours we get to perform is a gift to us and to our audiences.

Mandalorian is composed by multi-Oscar-winning and exceptionally-employed composer Ludwig Göransson. Perhaps one of the few composers worthy to take the baton from American composing and conducting legend and original Star Wars artist John Williams, Göransson has also composed for box office smashes Oppenheimer and Black Panther: Wakanda Forever. The Mandalorian opens with a far-away, echoing call: something mysterious and intriguing. You are immediately the explorer, searching for the source of the sound. It’s a little sad, but also exciting, and just when you think you’ve come to sense of it, the work builds into a classic, cinematic work full of color and life. Enjoy your journey through the stars!

Debut Symphony Orchestra

Also Sprach Zarathustra — Richard Strauss

Debut Symphony conductor Bryan Kolk, Orchestra Director at Mercer Island High School, heard the space-inspired theme for this concert and knew exactly what to do. Debut’s program today opens with an orchestral classic that took on a galactic association with the popularity of iconic series and eventual cult classic 2001: A Space Odyssey.

Also Sprach Zarathustra (German for “Thus spoke Zarathustra) is an epic work by German composer Richard Strauss (1864-1949). The work, premiered in the 1880s’ was written during the Romantic era in orchestral history, when a genre known as the “symphonic poem” was widely popular. Symphonic poems are works for full orchestra shorter than the classic multi-movement symphony, usually shorter in length, and inspired by some other kind of artwork– writings, paintings, et cetera. Strauss’s Zarathustra, written pretty late in the popularity run of symphonic poems, was inspired by the written works of Friedrich Nietzsche. Strauss described the works as a starting point, rather than a fully integrated concept with the music in its entirety. Nietzsche’s writings signal the arrival of some kind of grand prophet for humankind, and thus, Strauss’s music gives the massive, building anticipation of something huge.

Without over-betting our hand here, you’ve probably, okay, definitely heard this work. It begins with the iconic, very-distant call from the brass section, and builds into starbursts of brilliant sound and harmony across the orchestra, propelled by rolling and energetic percussion. It’s such a cool piece that it’s obvious why it’s been affixed to countless pieces of influential media across all forms. It’s one of those pieces that takes you immediately to the highest levels of the atmosphere with excitement and build.

Russian Easter Overture — Nicolai Rimsky-Korsakov, arranged by Henry Sopkin

Though today is St. Paddy’s Day, the final work in Debut’s program today is inspired by another holiday that often takes place in March. The work is composed by Russian compositional powerhouse and brilliant orchestrator Nicolai Rimsky-Korsakov (1844-1908).

In Russian culture, Easter is often referred to as “the bright holiday.” Russian Easter Overture is a work full of blazing, excited energy. It doesn’t start with all the energy and excitement, though, beginning rather solemnly with a hymnal theme and solo used in Orthodox traditional service. This hymn is representative of the seasonally-specific tale of the arrival of Christ, a rebirth and return. Easter Overture begins blooming and bursting with energy with quicker-paced rhythms across the ensemble, the sort of liveliness you see when sometimes in late March the sun comes out and temperatures are high for the first time after months of cold. Things begin bubbling up, but not before there are brief pulls back into the cold. You’ll hear the music make this journey in a playful way that is classic of Rimsky-Korsakov’s music. Listen for Rimsky-Korsakov’s use of non-traditional scales in his melodies, and the absolute life and color he gives his music by employing each instrument in the orchestra to express in its own unique character.

Junior Symphony Orchestra

Starburst — Jessie Montgomery

Jessie Montgomery is a composer and educator currently based in New York City. Her music spans many settings and styles, and she is frequently programmed in performances by ensembles of vastly different instrumentations. Today, she is critically acclaimed as composer, chamber musician, and solo violinist, often giving recitals of her own music, as well as the music of other composers from under-represented backgrounds.

Montgomery is equal parts brilliant musician and steadfast advocate. Montgomery has long been connected to the work of the Sphinx Organization, a Detroit-based nonprofit whose mission is to empower Latino and African American string players to take on classical music studies. She co-founded the PUBLIQuartet in 2010, and played with the Catalyst Quartet until 2021. Today she stays pretty busy: Montgomery is routinely commissioned by massive orchestral institutions across the entire country, trailblazing a path for aspiring young musicians like her with every new work and musical venture.

Originally written for string orchestra, Starburst is an exploration through the galaxies specifically through the vehicle of a philosophy: that the universe holds massive possibility, endless color, and individuality. We could say a lot about this massively expressive work, but Montgomery herself speaks to it with inspiring clarity: This brief one-movement work … is a play on imagery of rapidly changing musical colors. Exploding gestures are juxtaposed with gentle fleeting melodies in an attempt to create a multidimensional soundscape. A common definition of a starburst: ‘the rapid formation of large numbers of new stars in a galaxy at a rate high enough to alter the structure of the galaxy significantly’ lends itself almost literally to the nature of the performing ensemble who premiered the work, the Sphinx Virtuosi, and I wrote the piece with their dynamic in mind.

Viola Sonata – I. Impetuoso — Rebecca Clarke, arranged by Ruth Lomon

Today’s solo performance by 2023-24 Concerto Competition Winner Esther Lee is a rare treat: arranger Ruth Lomon brings the first movement of the Viola Sonata by renowned British composer and violist Rebecca Clarke (1886-1979) to life in the orchestra, giving the work a world of sound to bathe in outside its intended setting for piano and viola.

Rebecca Clarke, like many violists, was originally a violinist. Growing up she was exposed to music by her father, and was so gifted in its study she eventually enrolled at the Royal Academy of Music in London. Clarke was able to study alongside the country’s top musical minds at a renowned place of learning. However, studying in any institution during that particular era of Western history had plenty of drawbacks for women. Clarke was quickly withdrawn from the school after only two years by her father after her instructor and mentor alarmingly proposed to her while she was still a student. By this point, she had gained plenty of musical and compositional chops—she later applied to the Royal College of Music, becoming one of the very few female composers accepted into its ranks.

It was there at the College Clarke was urged by her instructor to switch from violin to viola, and her musical inspiration shifted. She quickly took to the instrument and found it characteristically warm, unique, and expressive. Her composition instructor saw this as a win-win: the industry needed more gifted violists, and a strong composer like Clarke could only benefit from moving to the very center of the orchestra where all its sounds could surround and influence her in an immersive way. Thus, as she developed a new and deep interest in the viola’s characteristic sound, her compositions changed, and included lots more of the viola’s violet heft.

The Viola Sonata won second place in a British compositional contest, losing to a work by the great Swiss-American composer Ernest Bloch. Clarke was not bitter at this loss—rather, she was honored to be seen as equal alongside Bloch, one of her compositional inspirations. However, news of her win was utterly shocking, some reviewers suggesting Clarke had somehow plagiarized the work. Clarke fought against sexist accusations like these for decades, playfully announcing in a program note for a 1977 recital “I take this opportunity to emphasize that I do indeed exist.. and that my Viola Sonata is my own unaided work!” Nonetheless, though her overall compositional was relatively small, Clarke is highly lauded today for her sophisticated music for chamber settings, and especially her profound contributions to the repertoire for the violin’s lesser-appreciated big sibling.

Musically, Clarke’s upbringing in a modernist era, and particularly the influence of French Impressionism, clearly contributed to her pen. You’ll hear lots of non-traditional scales, whole-tone movement, complicated harmonies and atypical resolutions.

Clarke’s music is really sophisticated and bold. It’s simultaneously incredibly frustrating and unsurprising that men who thought only their gender could master the strength of musical storytelling would think Clarke was an imposter—she swings just as hard, and in the case of this particular sonata’s uniqueness, arguably was contributing and evolving the classical repertoire with greater success.

Symphony No. 2 in D Major, IV. Allegro con spirito — Johannes Brahms

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Program Notes by Louis Brooks, Director of Development.