withBlack Hills cHamBer music society

andavera mckennan Hospital &

university HealtH center

present the

2012J. laiten Weed

HONORSORCHESTRA

David Bargconducting

Saturday, February 11, 2012

First Congregational Church

Rapid City, SD

7:30 pm.

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About the J. Laiten Weed Honors Orchestra

Twenty-two of the high-school string students who achieved the top scores in auditions for South Dakota All-State Orchestra compose each year's J. Laiten Weed Honors Orchestra. They begin preparing Honors Orchestra music individually in December and arrive on the Thursday evening before the Saturday concert to audition for solo assignments and placement within the group. An intense two days of rehearsals follow, culminating in a performance that invariably proves to be polished, refined and exhilarating. Conductors for the group have been top music educators from South Dakota and around the country, including the late Dr. Weed.

J. Laiten Weed was one of the first professional string teachers in South Dakota. Director of the Yankton College Conservatory of Music, he was a charter member of the South Dakota String Teachers' Association. An Honors Orchestra to showcase the state's top string students—and to provide them with a unique musical learning experience—was a goal that Laiten shared with other string teachers for several years. In 1986, SDSTA president Raymond Sidoti secured initial funding for a state Honors Orchestra from the American String Teachers' Association and the SD Arts Council. The next February, during one of Laiten Weed's several terms as president of SDSTA, the Honors Orchestra became a reality.

When his wife, Lucy, died in 1986, Laiten established a string scholarship fund in her name. The fund soon evolved into the Lucy Palermo Weed String Competition. The generous bequest received following Laiten Weed's death in 1989 enabled the competition to provide financial sponsorship of the Honors Orchestra. Hence the orchestra is dedicated to the legacy and the memory of J. Laiten Weed—gentleman, consummate teacher and professional musician. Through his vision and provision for the future, SDSTA has both the Lucy Palermo Weed String Competition and the J. Laiten Weed Honors Orchestra to promote and reward excellence in string music.

1004 Marquette avenue Suite 205 MinneapoliS, Mn 55403800.279.4323 612.375.0708 www.givenSviolinS.coM

C L A I R E G I V E N S V I O L I N S , I N C .

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The South Dakota

UPCOMING CONCERTSFebruary 25 & 26: Mozart’s “Jupiter” Symphony

Featuring Margaret Lattimore singing Daniel Kellog’s From Everlasting to Everlasting

March 10: Jeans n’ Classics: The Music of ABBAMarch 31 & April 1: Copland’s Appalachian Spring

April 21: SDSO: A Space OdysseyMay 4, 5, 6: Haydn’s Creation

TICKETS: Call the Washington Pavilion Box Office at 605-367-6000.www.sdsymphony.org

Tickets start at $10.

To join the SDSYO call Abby Bogenrief at 605-335-7933 ex. 14 or e-mail her at abby.bogenrief@sdsymphony.org.

Upcoming South Dakota Symphony Youth Orchestra Concerts

Sunday, February 26, 2012 - 6:00pmSunday, May 6, 2012 - 6:00pm

Mary W. Sommervold Hall, Washington Pavilion

Experience the Music....Join the YO!

About the ConductorDavid Barg

David Barg is dedicated to working with young musicians, young ensembles, and their conductors. A clinician for the Education Department of the NY Philharmonic and professional development consultant to many school districts, David has worked with youth orchestras, middle-school, high-school, college, and conservatory ensembles in Los Angeles, New York, Philadelphia, Boston, Washington DC, Houston, Las Vegas, Annapolis, Baltimore, Tulsa, Kansas City, Omaha, and elsewhere. He has led All-State Orchestras in Arkansas, Nebraska, Nevada, Indiana, Kansas, Missouri, and Ohio.

David’s research focus is the development of a learner-centered approach to conducting and rehearsing school ensembles. The Charles A. Dana Foundation has, for three consecutive years, underwritten the develop-ment, testing, and refining of his approach, the Whole Person Method™, as well its delivery in a variety of formats and demographic settings. David’s workbook for music education students, school ensemble leaders, and arts administrators, Igniting Response, will be published in spring, 2012.

A resident of New York City, he has taught this approach at K-12 in-service and staff-development days in accredited professional develop-ment workshops sponsored by such organizations as the Metropolitan Opera Guild and the NY Philharmonic; the Atlanta, Baltimore, Buffalo, Duluth, Houston, Kansas City, and Washington, D.C. Boards of Education; and many State Music Educators Associations, among others.

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2012 Honors Orchestra TeachersSchool Music Teachers: John Alpers, Mario Chiarello, Bill Evans,

Bruce Knowles, Kathy Liesinger, Duane Niles, Ryan WalkerPrivate Teachers: Elizabeth Benusis, Steve Gram, Doosook Kim,

Eunho Kim, Bruce Knowles, Carol Knowles, Elizabeth Knowles, Maxim Kozlov, Karren Melik-Stepanov, Curtis Peacock, Maria Peters, Jay Reeve, Charlene Savot, Ray Sidoti, Sue Sidoti, Amanda Swartz

2012 Honors Orchestra Personnel1st violin

Jamuna Buchanan . . . . . . . . . . . Rapid City StevensMaria Formiller. . . . . . . . . . . . . . Sioux Falls LincolnHannah Gerdes. . . . . . . . . . . Sioux Falls O’GormanMaya Lehmann. . . . . . . . . . . . . . Rapid City StevensAlyssa Mastel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Rapid City StevensMaya Van Nuys. . . . . . . . . . . . . . Rapid City Stevens

2nd violin

Emily Iverson . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Rapid City StevensAvery Lux . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Rapid City CentralClaire Porter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Rapid City CentralEmily Schrag. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Mitchell ChristianJenny Sun . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . VermillionKrey Warshaw. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Rapid City Central

viola

Andrew Carlson. . . . . . . . . . Sioux Falls RooseveltCullen Knowles . . . . . . . . . . . Rapid City CentralMadeleine Price . . . . . . . . . . . Rapid City CentralAdam Schechter . . . . . . . . . . . Sioux Falls Lincoln

cello Jessica Bachman . . . . . . . . . . . . Rapid City CentralRyan Doerr . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Sioux Falls LincolnKarl Henry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Sioux Falls LincolnAmanda Reeves. . . . . . . . . . . . . Rapid City Central

BassTucker Smith. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Rapid City CentralKristen Wheaton. . . . . . . . . . Sioux Falls Roosevelt

Music at the university of south Dakota www.usd.edu/music

UndergradUate edUcation• Bachelor of Music in Music Education • Bachelor of Musical Arts• Bachelor of Music in Performance• Talent-based Scholarships up to

$4,000 annually

gradUate edUcation• Master of Music in Music Education • Master of Music in Performance • Master of Music in Music History• Rawlins Fellowships for Piano or Strings

and Graduate Assistantships 1/3 reduced in-state tuition/$5,558 stipend

Performance oPPortUnitiesOver 100 Concerts Annually• Symphonic Band• Marching Band• Jazz Bands • Symphony Orchestra • Chamber Orchestra• Chamber Singers• Concert Choir• Concert Band

contact: dr. tim farrellchair department of music timothy.farrell@usd.edu

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2012 J. Laiten Weed Honors Orchestra

ProgramDavid Barg, conducting

Canon in D . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Johann Pachelbel

(1653-1706)

Toccata & Fugue in d minor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Johann S. Bach

arr. Gene Alvillar (1685-1750)

“Air on the G String” from Orchestral Suite No. 3 . . . . Johann S. Bach

(1685-1750)

Prelude and Scherzo, Op.11 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Dmitri Shostakovich

(1906-1975)

One Dark Night (Overture for String Orchestra) . . . . .Michael McLean

(1952- )

• Scholarships available

• Open to students from all majors

• Several performances each year

• Opportunities to perform in numerous other ensembles

• Excellent facilities for performance and rehearsal

• Outstanding faculty

• Integration of faith and learning

ChamberOrchestraat Northwestern College

www.nwciowa.edu/music

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About the Music pacHelBel: canon

Although forgotten and not rediscovered until the twentieth century, this work has joined the “Air on the G-String” as one of today’s most popular Baroque compositions. Performed regularly in concert halls—and more often at weddings—its compositional style includes the canon and the ground bass. A canon is similar to a round, such as “Row, Row, Row Your Boat.” Here, you’ll hear the first violins, second violins and violas all playing the exact same melody, but starting at different times. The ground bass is a two-measure pattern that is repeated in, yes, the basses (celli and contrabasses) that “grounds” the melodies above.

BacH: toccata & Fugue in d minor

Some of us will recognize this work as the first selection in Walt Disney’s original version of Fantasia. I was fortunate to be taken by my parents to see the movie as a child, and became inspired to think of music also in visual and associative ways ever since. Originally written for organ and now available for string players through this extraordinary arrangement by Gene Alvillar, the work opens with a Toccata, a dramatic almost improvisatory flourish in which the different sections of the ensemble speak—sometimes appear to argue—with each other. Next comes the Fugue, a musical element that Sir Francis Tovey called “…more texture than form.” The 16th-note theme (“subject” in FugueSpeak) is played by every section of the orchestra. Like our lives, it sometimes sounds happier (major key) and sometimes sadder (minor key); sometimes lighter (when played by the violins), sometimes heavier (celli and basses), and sometimes in-between (violas). The closing section paints a grand and exalted vision of what may be possible to achieve in our lives.

BacH: air on tHe g string

This beloved work is the “Aria” movement from Bach’s 3rd Orchestral Suite, written for his patron, Prince Leopold of Anhalt, sometime between 1717 and 1723. The title makes us think that the violinists will be playing this transcendently beautiful and meditative piece on one string only. But, as you watch the violinists tonight, you’ll see them playing, instead, on several strings, and you may wonder about

Continued on p. 15

Audition to play for pay!

For more informationcontact:

John E. Brawand, DMA, DirectorSDSU-Civic SymphonyLincoln Music Center, Box 2212Brookings, SD 57007

(605) 688-4414john.brawand@sdstate.edu

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the title. It is the result of violinist August Wilhelmj’s late-19th-century arrangement of the work for violin and piano. By transposing the piece from its original D major to C major, violinists would be able to play the piece on only one string, thus eliminating pesky string crossings. While surely interesting, the background of the title is quickly forgotten if we will only allow ourselves to yield to the music’s description of life’s vast range of possibilities, and to its reassurance that, if we will meet its challenges with high-minded determination, all is—and will be—well.

sHostakovicH: prelude & scHerzo

Our ears and minds need tuning to another tonality, another time, for this early work by Shostakovich. Although he is not as familiar as other Russian or contemporary composers, many (myself included) consider Shostakovich to be one of the greatest 20th-century composers for his music of great emotional power and unique invention. Composed while a student at the Leningrad Conservatory, this work opens with a slow, brooding Prelude followed by an exuberant, exhilarating Scherzo. The Scherzo, especially, is a real “player’s piece” for its physicality, fun techniques (glissandi), and even its not-so-fun techniques (playing in extreme upper registers). I chose the work for this program for the musical and pedagogical challenges it presents to the players, for the innovative sounds it brings to an audience, and for the exuberance and thrill of its closing moments.

mclean: one dark nigHt

My dear friend Michael McLean, an extraordinary composer of concert and film music, wrote this string overture in 2005. I asked him to create a work that would have young musicians bouncing up and down in their chairs by its end, and, as you’ll see, that’s just what he did. The mysterious, slightly-spooky opening is followed by a sarcastic (“teen-age?”) scherzo (the Italian word for “joke”) and then a Burlesque that Michael notes should be “sinister, with humor.” Emerging from the Burlesque is a slow, sad, sentimental waltz that closes with a sweet, almost saccharine violin solo—right out of a film noire from the ‘30s. The ending that gets the musicians (and, we hope, the audience) bouncing is a Rhumba; Michael asks that it be played “with style,” and it’s practically impossible not to! —Program Notes by David Barg

About the Music (continued)

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