UMS Concert Program, Friday Apr. 13 To 22: University Musical Society: Winter 2007 - Friday Apr. 13 To 22 --

Season: Winter 2007

Winter 2007 Season 128th Annual Season
General Information
On-site ticket offices at performance venues open 90 minutes before each performance and remain open through ntermission of most events.
Thildren of all ages are welcome at JMS Family and Youth Performances, 'arents are encouraged not to bring hildren under the age of 3 to regular, ull-length UMS performances. All chil-jren should be able to sit quietly in heir own seats throughout any UMS ;erformance. Children unable to do so, ilong with the adult accompanying hem, will be asked by an usher to ave the auditorium. Please use discre-ion in choosing to bring a child.
Remember, everyone must have a :.cket, regardless of age.
"Vhile in the Auditorium
tarting Time Every attempt is made o begin concerts on time. Latecomers ire asked to wait in the lobby until sated by ushers at a predetermined me in the program.
'ameras and recording equipment
ire prohibited in the auditorium.
II you have a question, ask your usher. They are here to help.
Please turn off your cellular phones and other digital devices so that every?one may enjoy this UMS event distur-aance-free. In case of emergency, advise your paging service of auditori?um and seat location in Ann Arbor enues, and ask them to call University .ecurity at 734.763.1131.
In the interests of saving both dollars nd the environment, please either ?Hain this program book and return . ith it when you attend other UMS i erformances included in this edition i r return it to your usher when leaving ie venue.
Event Program Book
Friday, April 13 through Sunday, April 22, 2007
John Williams and John Etheridge 5
Friday, April 13, 8:00 pm Rackham Auditorium
Jerusalem Quartet 9
Sunday, April 15, 4:00 pm Rackham Auditorium
Netherlands Bach Society 15
Thursday, April 19, 8:00 pm
St. Francis of Assisi Catholic Church
Trinity Irish Dance Company 23
Friday, April 20, 8:00 pm
Saturday, April 21, 1:00 pm (One-Hour Family Performance)
Saturday, April 21, 8:00 pm
Power Center
Los Folkloristas 33
Sunday, April 22, 4:00 pm Rackham Auditorium
A
s we bring the current 200607 season to a close, several images stand out for me. k I was fortunate to be on the scene to either capture the photos with my own camera or to be present when they were taken.
Watch the newspapers, your mailbox, and www.ums.org for an announcement of the upcoming 0708 season any day now. It's going to be a marvelous 129th UMS season, and we hope you'll join us for many of the events.
Have a great summer, and we'll see you in the fall.
@@@@Ken Fischer UMS President
The UMS Usher Corps at Hill Auditorium prior to the December 3 performance of Handel's Messiah
Cellist David Finckel and pianist Wu Han visit U-M students camping out overnight outside of the Power Center to purchase RSC student tickets, very early morning, September 30
Dan Zanes autographs a CD for a young fan following his family performance at Rackham Auditorium, November 18
Late football coach Bo Schembechler with RSC actors Finbar Lynch and John Light at a Power Center reception preceding a performance of Antony and Cleopatra, November 8
RSC actor Patrick Stewart leads the U-M Marching Band at the Big House, November 4
Above, Left to Right:
UMS patron Agnes Warren (center front) and her family celebrating her 100th birthday at the December 3 Messiah performance. Agnes began the tradition of attending UMS Messiah presentations in the 1940s.
UMS's Ben Johnson, flanked by the Chair and President of the Association of Performing Arts Presenters, accepting the MetLife Award for Increasing Arts Access in Underserved Communities awarded to UMS at the APAP conference in New York City. January 22
Members of the Martha Graham Dance Company meet with a young fan in the Power Center lobby, October 14
RSC actors from Julius Caesar rehearsing scenes from the play with members of Mosaic Youth Theater prior to the November 11 matinee performance
UMS Educational Events
through Saturday, May 5, 2007
All UMS educational activities are free, open to the public, and in Ann Arbor unless otherwise noted. For complete details and updates, please visit www.ums.org or contact the UMS Education Department at 734.647.6712 or e-mail umsed@umich.edu.
Breakin' Curfew Breakin' Curfew
Saturday, May 5, 8:00-11:00 pm, Power Center
Ann Arbor youth raise the curtain to offer a rare glimpse into the performance art they create in their basements, garages, schools, and at Ann Arbor's teen center, the Neutral Zone. Curated, produced, and marketed by local high school students, this annual event allows entrance into the colorful and innovative minds of talented young performers. Existing only in Ann Arbor, this unique show blends spoken word, dance, ska, rock-and-roll, hip-hop, classical music, jazz, and more for a single blow-out extravaganza of thought-provoking musical, lyrical, and visual art. This event is the ultimate reflection of the jaw-dropping artistic diversity that thrives in our teen community. Tickets are $15 for adults and $10 for students.
ums University Musical Society
presents
John Williams
Guitar and
John Etheridge
Guitar
Program
Francis Bebey
John Williams
John Etheridge
Vasco Martins
Williams
Rossy
Etheridge
Williams
Djessou Mory Kante
Etheridge
Benjamin Verdery
Friday Evening, April 13, 2007 at 8:00 Rackham Auditorium Ann Arbor
Together and Solo
This evening's program will be performed with one intermission and will include the following duos in addition to solos from both guitarists.
Sangara
Slow Dub
Monti's Casino
Triangular Situations
Extra Time
Mitopa
Strange Comforts
Malinke Guitars
Djandjon
Places Between
Peace, Love and Guitars
65th Performance of the 128th Annual Season
44th Annual Chamber Arts Series
The photographing or sound and video record?ing of this concert or possession of any device for such recording is pro?hibited.
Mr. Williams and Mr. Etheridge appear by arrangement with Arts Management Group, Inc.
Large print programs are available upon request.
J
ohn Etheridge has been at the top of the jazz and contemporary guitar world for 30 years. His career has covered a huge range of musical territory, combining powerful improvising technique, a feel for idiom, and an individual con?cept, which makes his output eclectic but highly personal.
The music press first touted Mr. Etheridge in the early 1970s while he was playing with a num?ber of early fusion bands. In 1975, he was offered the chance to replace Allan Holdsworth in the leg?endary jazz-fusion group Soft Machine. International touring and recording followed until the band's demise at the end of the 1970s. More or less simultaneously (starting in 1976), Mr. Etheridge joined the touring group of the cele?brated jazz violinist Stephane Grappelli. For a number of years these two commitments ran par?allel--revealing the broad range of his abilities. Mr. Etheridge left Grappelli's quartet in the early 1980s. For the past 20 years, he has pursued a career involving associations with many of the great players of the jazz world. Either in single concerts, touring, or recording, he has appeared with Barney Kessel, Herb Ellis, Mundell Lowe, Birelli Lagrene, Dizzy Gillespie, Tony Williams,
Yehudi Menuhin, Pat Metheny, Andy Summers, and Nigel Kennedy.
In addition to his solo engagements, Mr. Etheridge also fronts the quartet Sweet Chorus dedicated to Stephane Grappelli, and co-leads the 8-piece group Zappatistas, performing the music of Frank Zappa. In the 0506 season he performed with John Marshall, Hugh Hopper, and Theo Travis in the Soft Machine Legacy. Mr. Etheridge has been associated with John Williams for sever?al years, working together on various projects.
@@@@B
orn in Melbourne, Australia, John Williams can be regarded as a foremost ambassador of the guitar. He was taught by his father, afterwards attending summer courses with Segovia at the Academia Musicale Chigiana in Siena, Italy, and studying music at the Royal College of Music in London. By the early 1960s, he had performed in London, Paris, Madrid, Japan, Russia, and the US; he has since toured the world playing both solo and with orchestra, and regularly on radio and television. Mr. Williams records for Sony BMG.
John Williams and John Etheridge
Amongst his collaborations with other musi?cians, those with Julian Bream, Itzhak Perlman, Andre Previn, Cleo Laine, and John Dankworth are particularly important. His other musical activ?ities have included the groups SKY, John Williams and Friends, Attacca, The National Youth Jazz Orchestra with Paul Hart, Paco Pena, the Chilean group Inti-lllimani, and various collaborations with Richard Harvey. In the 0607 season, Mr. Williams and jazz guitarist John Etheridge will team up as a duo and tour the UK and US (both in the fall and spring) in a program that will feature compo?sitions written by them as well as some African music and a new work by American guitaristcomposer Benjamin Verdery. This pro?gram will also be recorded by Sony BMG live in Dublin, released in the fall of 2006, and will be performed in major venues across the US.
Mr. Williams maintains a wide-ranging inter?est in contemporary music. Examples have includ?ed his recording of music by the Japanese com?poser Toru Takemitsu with the London Sinfonietta, an album featuring the music of Peter Sculthorpe and Nigel Westlake called From Australia, and his CD of music by the Cuban com?poser Leo Brouwer, called The Black Decameron, which includes Brouwer's Fourth Concerto. The highly successful Profile and The Seville Concert, both directed by David Thomas for London Weekend Television's South Bank Show, are par?ticular examples of Mr. Williams' enthusiasm for communicating music on television. Mr. Williams also plays often for films, such as The Deerhunter (Cavatina) and A Fish Called Wanda.
In 2001 Sony Classical released his CD enti?tled The Magic Box in which his group John Williams and Friends presented adaptations of African music. This includes music from Senegal, Cameroon, Zaire, South Africa, Madagascar, and Cape Verde. Since its release they have toured the UK, US, Australia, Singapore, Malaysia, Germany, Spain, and Italy. His latest CD compilation The Ultimate Guitar Collection has now been released by Sony. He now lives in London.
UMS ARCHIVES
T
his evening's performance marks John Williams's fifth appearance under UMS auspices. Mr. Williams made his UMS debut in October 1978 in a recital with guitarist Julian Bream at Hill Auditorium.
This evening marks John Etheridge's UMS debut.
? I ? ? !--
and
Jane and Edward
Schulak
present
Jerusalem Quartet
Alexander Pavlovsky, Violin Sergei Bresler, Violin Amihai Grosz, Viola Kyril ZIotnikov, Cello
betcol Program
Sunday Afternoon, April 15, 2007 at 4:00 Rackham Auditorium Ann Arbor
@@@@Franz Joseph Haydn
Samuel Barber
String Quartet in f minor. Op. 20, No. 5
Allegro moderato
Menuetto
Adagio
Finale: Fuga a due Soggetti
String Quartet, Op. 11
Molto allegro e appassionato Molto adagio-Molto allegro
77ie "Molto adagio" of the Barber Quartet--his "Adagio for Strings"--is offered in recognition of today's Israeli holiday: Yom HaShoah. Yom HaShoah is held annually in remembrance of the six million Jews who perished in the Holocaust and is a national memorial day in Israel.
INTERMISSION
Piotr llyich Tchaikovsky
String Quartet No. 1 in D Major, Op. 11
Moderato e semplice Andante cantabile Scherzo: Allegro non tanto Finale: Allegro giusto
66th Performance of the 128th Annual Season
44th Annual Chamber Arts Series
The photographing or sound and video record?ing of this concert or possession of any device for such recording is pro?hibited.
This performance is supported by Jane and Edward Schulak.
Special thanks to ProQuest Company for its support of the UMS Classical Kids Club.
Media partnership provided by WGTE 91.3 FM, Observer & Eccentric newspapers, and Detroit Jewish News.
We welcome members of the Jewish Federation of Washtenaw County to this afternoon's performance.
Jerusalem Quartet appears by arrangement with ICM Artists, Ltd.
Large print programs are available upon request.
String Quartet in f minor. Op. 20, No. 5 (1772) Franz Joseph Haydn
Born March 31, 1732 in Rohrau, Lower Austria Died May 31, 1809 in Vienna
The six quartets published as Op. 20 mark Haydn's first maturity as a quartet composer. The cycle has long been linked to Haydn's so-called "Sturm und Drang" (storm and stress) period--a period in the early 1770s during which he wrote more works in a dark, dramatic mood than at any other time in his life. One sign of that dramatic quality is the frequent use of the minor mode, which helps generate a more intense harmonic idiom and express feelings that anticipate the Romantic era.
Op. 20 is the only set of Haydn quartets to contain not one but two quartets in a minor key. The second of these, in f minor, is also one of three in the set to close with fugues, whose pres?ence is another special feature of this set. According to one hypothesis, the use of this Baroque form, which seems somewhat archaic in the given context, may have been a response to a critic from Berlin who had complained that Haydn (and some of his contemporaries) did not know enough counterpoint.
The extraordinary features of the f-minor quartet start at the very beginning, with a mean?dering theme that refuses to fit into the usual eight-bar periods of classical music. The continu?ation is just as unusual, with a development sec?tion that is exceptionally long and complex for its time, and a coda at the end involving a true har?monic labyrinth that explores some very distant tonalities before settling back into f minor.
The second-movement "Minuet" continues the serious tone with more musical phrases of irregular structure. By contrast, the central trio is simpler and switches to the major mode for emo?tional relief.
The third-movement "Adagio" is a lyrical aria with some exquisite figurations for the first violin. In one particularly noteworthy spot, the Latin words per figuram retardationis (with a fig?ure of delay) are inscribed over the violin part. This means that the pure harmony is "delayed" after the melody and the accompaniment clash rather harshly here on each downbeat.
The last movement is marked "fugue with two subjects." The first of these subjects is a well-known Baroque theme type, which was also used
by Handel in his Messiah (30 years before Haydn) and Mozart in his Requiem (almost 20 years after Haydn). The contrapuntal structure is maintained relentlessly to the end, where a closing section in a somewhat freer style is appended.
The six quartets of Op. 20 used to be known as the "Sun" quartets, after the image of the sun that adorned the first edition; it is one of those nicknames that became obsolete after their origin had been forgotten.
String Quartet, Op. 11 (1936-43)
Samuel Barber
Born March 9, 1910 in West Chester, Pennsylvania
Died January 23, 1981 in New York
Barber's Adagio for Strings became famous in the orchestral version introduced to the music world by Arturo Toscanini in 1938 (and to the world at large in 1986, at the latest, by Oliver Stone's Vietnam movie Platoon). Yet this classical elegy was first conceived as a string quartet, and to hear it in its original context, surrounded by music that utterly contrasts with its noble calm, is to get a measure of the range of emotions that Samuel Barber could muster as a young composer still in his 20s.
Barber had been "discovered" even before he graduated from the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia. His talents were rewarded by a fel?lowship at the American Academy in Rome, where he was in residence during 1936-37, and where he began work on his String Quartet. His friends of the Curtis String Quartet were planning a European tour and Barber wanted them to per?form his new work at the Academy. These plans fell through and the quartet was premiered by the Pro Arte Quartet instead (on December 14, 1936). Barber, however, was dissatisfied with the work and withdrew it for revision. He went through several versions for the last movement and dis?carded an entire finale he had written. It wasn't until 1943 that he found a solution he deemed worthy of publication. This solution, surprisingly, did away with a third movement altogether, and ended with an abridged and modified recapitula?tion of the first movement, which followed the "Adagio" without pause. In its final form, then, the quartet technically consists of two move?ments only.
The first of these movements, "Molto alle?gro e appassionato," opens with a theme of great dramatic urgency and contains two more major ideas, both lyrical and songlike. But the harsh accents are never far from the surface, and the recapitulation of the opening theme, fortissimo instead of plain forte, erupts with a power that is almost violent. The music winds down and ends in the same pianissimo in which the "Adagio" (actually, marked Molto adagio here) is about to begin. Here Barber made an extremely simple melody, moving in equal quarter notes, soar to great heights of expression. The melody grows gradually from the delicate opening to a passion?ate climax and back again to a whispered pianis?simo. After this, the turbulent music of the first movement returns, ending the work on an emo?tional high point.
String Quartet No. 1 in D Major, Op. 11 (1871) Piotr llyich Tchaikovsky
Born May 7, 1840 in Kamsko-Votkinsk, Russia Died November 6, 1893 in St. Petersburg
The first of Tchaikovsky's three "official" string quartets (there is also an unfinished student work from 1865) is also the first significant quartet ever written by a Russian. While it clearly pays hom?age to the masters from whom the young com?poser had learned his craft, it also determined the way a distinctively Russian chamber-music tradi?tion should develop from a fusion of Western and national elements (even if that may have been the last thing on the young composer's mind at the time of writing).
In his multi-volume biography of Tchaikovsky, David Brown was correct in identify?ing Schubert as Tchaikovsky's principal model. Schubert's voice is unmistakable at the very open?ing of the quartet, where a slow-moving chordal progression moves in a syncopated rhythmic pat?tern (a similar passage occurs in the first move?ment of Schubert's final quartet in G). The way the melody is gradually surrounded by figurations is also very Schubertian; yet only a great compos?er could have matched not only the technique but the feeling of the original model.
Schubert is left behind in the celebrated sec?ond movement, which has become popular in many arrangements. This "Andante cantabile" is based on a Russian folksong that Tchaikovsky had
heard in 1869 at Kamenka, the country estate of his sister Sasha and her husband Lev Davydov. It is said that Lev Tolstoy was moved to tears when he heard this melody at the first performance of Tchaikovsky's quartet, where the folk melody, of noble simplicity, alternates with a more effusively lyrical second theme of the composer's own invention. The entire movement is a sublime Romantic reverie, from which we are awakened by the scherzo, where a Western form is invigor?ated by a folksy drone bass underneath a stub?bornly repeated rhythmic pattern. Much of the central Trio section is also dominated by an unchanging bass, in this case a persistent trill in the cello.
Although it does not quote any original folk melodies, both of the finale's principal themes have a clear Russian flavor; they are then subject?ed to the kind of motivic development that would have struck a Russian listener as "Western," based as it is on models that ultimately go back to Beethoven. The general pause and temporary slowdown shortly before the end are certainly Beethovenian gestures, as is the con fuoco (fiery) coda that concludes the work.
Program notes by Peter Laki.
@@@@O
ne of the most dynamic and exciting young quartets currently performing, the Jerusalem Quartet is in great demand throughout the world. In 2006, to mark the Shostakovich centenary, the Quartet will be per?forming quartet cycles for Amsterdam Concertgebouw, London's Wigmore Hall, Berlin Konzerthaus and Vancouver Recital Series. They will also be performing in Herkulessaal Munich, Bruges Concertgebouw, Vienna Konzerthaus, Symphony Hall Birmingham, twice in the Chatelet (including one concert with Helene Grimaud) and will give a performance of Beethoven quartets as part of a gala concert to celebrate the composer's birthday at the Beethovenhalle in Bonn.
Dates further ahead include concerts in Cologne Philharmonie and for Bozar in Brussels; substantial tours of Australia (where they will be Musica Viva's Quartet-in-Residence from 2006-2009), New Zealand, the US, and Japan; a residency at the Verbier Festival in Summer 2007; and a series of concerts for the Amsterdam Concertgebouw in Summer 2007.
Adding to their growing discography with Harmonia Mundi, a CD of Shostakovich Quartets 1, 4, and 9 was released in May 2005 and an all-Haydn CD was released last year. Their third CD, released in 2006, is a recording of Dvorak's "American Quartet" and the Piano Quintet with Stefan Vladar. EMI released a CD in spring 2001 of music by Shostakovich and Tchaikovsky; the Jerusalem Quartet have also recorded two cover CDs for BBC Music Magazine.
The Quartet were recipients of the first Borletti-Buitoni Trust Award in 2003, part of the first-ever BBC New Generation Artists scheme between 1999 and 2001. They received "first prize" (as well as the prize for the best interpreta?tion of 20th-century music) in 1997 at the Franz Schubert and the Music of the 20th Century Competition in Graz, Austria, where they per?formed Kurtag's Twelve Microludes and Bartok's String Quartet No. 6. They were also awarded "first prize" at the Jerusalem Academy Chamber Music Competition in 1996.
The Jerusalem Quartet have performed alongside such eminent musicians as Mitsuko Uchida, Jessye Norman, Daniel Barenboim, Elena Bashkirova, Tabea Zimmermann, Natalia
Gutman, Itamar Golan, Natalie Clein, Boris Pergamenshikov, and the Vermeer and Prazac Quartets. As students they participated regularly in masterclasses and courses with such renowned musicians as Isaac Stern, Gyorgy Kurteg, and members of the Amadeus Quartet. The Quartet was founded within the framework of the Young Musicians' Group of the Jerusalem Music Centre and the America-Israel Cultural Foundation in co?operation with the Conservatory of the Jerusalem Rubin Academy of Music and Dance, where they studied under Avi Abramovich.
The Quartet are grateful to Daniel Barenboim who generously loans Jacqueline Du Pre's "Sergio Perresson" cello to Kyril Zlotnikov.
UMS ARCHIVES
T
his afternoon's concert marks the Jerusalem Quartet's second UMS appearance. The Quartet made their UMS debut in April 2005 at Rackham Auditorium.
Jerusalem Quartet
1'liiVi
and
Barbara Furin Sloat
present
Netherlands Bach Society
Jos van Veldhoven, Conductor
Dorothee Mields, Soprano Johannette Zomer, Soprano Matthew White, Countertenor Charles Daniels, Tenor Peter Harvey, Bass
Program
Thursday Evening, April 19, 2007 at 8:00
St. Francis of Assisi Catholic Church Ann Arbor
Johann Sebastian Bach
Mass in b minor, BWV 232
Missa Kyrie Gloria
INTERMISSION
Symbolum Nicenum Credo
PAUSE
Osanna, Benedictus, Agnus Dei, Dona Nobis Pacem Osanna Benedictus Osanna
Agnus Dei
Dona Nobis Pacem
67th Performance of the 128th Annual Season
The photographing or sound and video record?ing of this concert or possession of any device for such recording is prohibited.
This performance is supported by Barbara Furin Sloat and the Sloat Family. Media partnership provided by WRCJ 90.9 FM.
The organ used in tonight's performance is made possible by the Academy of Early Music, Ann Arbor.
The harpsichord used in tonight's performance is made possible by Thomas Ciul Harpsichords, Smiths Creek, Michigan.
Netherlands Bach Society appears by arrangement with Aaron Concert Artists.
Large print programs are available upon request.
Mass in b minor, BWV 232
Johann Sebastian Bach
Born March 21, 1685 in Eisenach, Germany
Died July 28, 1750 in Leipzig
In a letter dated July 27, 1733, Johann Sebastian Bach requested the new Elector of Saxony, Friedrich August II, to confer on him the title of "electoral Saxon court Capellmeister." To support this request, he enclosed a "modest bit of work"; a Missa consisting of a Kyrie and Gloria. We are not sure whether this mass was performed at the time in Leipzig or Dresden, and Bach only acquired the desired title in 1736. A Missa was eminently suitable for supporting this request to the Elector. Dresden was a mixture of Lutheran and Catholic. The Elector was Catholic because of the Polish throne, but Saxony itself was mainly Lutheran. The Kyrie and the Gloria were the parts that were sung in the liturgies of both faiths. Furthermore, the Elector Friedrich August I had died in February 1733 and been succeeded by his son Friedrich August II. The opposition of the Kyrie and the Gloria was ideal for representing this change of the regal guard, as the Kyrie sym?bolizes mourning for the death of the father and the Gloria symbolizes rejoicing for the new ruler. Bach regarded his Missa as a touchstone of his compositional art. The fact that he assembled it from sections that were already composed formed no restriction to this. It gave him the opportunity of selecting those sections from his richly stocked musical archive that provided a maximum of ingenuity and contrast. Bach intro?duces this contrast programme in the three-part Kyrie. The first Kyrie eleison in b minor is a mod?ern, chromatic piece, with complex harmonies and an expressive imploring theme. The fugue is continuously polyphonic, with the entries being accompanied by other voices right from the start. An impressive, continual cry for mercy is created. The Christe eleison is written as a galant opera duet (with the typical operatic accompaniment of unison violins and continuo). The second Kyrie eleison, however, which is also fourvoiced, is strictly polyphonic again, but this time in the stile antico. It is written in alia breve time signature and uses instruments that serve to reinforce the sung parts. It is a style that stands for the eternal and the invariable.
In the Gloria, trumpets and timpani are added to the instrumentation. The structure reflects the origins of the text. The opening dip?tych, Gloria in excelsis Deo--Et in terra pax, comes from the Gospel of Luke 2 (the Nativity) and is based on the heavenly vision that appeared to the shepherds. The pieces were conceived as a prelude and fugue, as an affective contrasting pair. The prelude is a concertante gigue, whereas the fugue is based on a pastoral Seufzer theme, which is systematically carried to a grand climax. However, from the Laudamus te to the end (Cum sancto spirito), the text is non-Biblical and origi?nates from the early Christian church. In the heart of this liturgical hymn lies the Qui tollis peccata mundi, which textually represents a central idea of the Christian religion ("Thou who taketh away the sins of the world, have mercy on us"). The music is like a prayer. It is the only choral part of the Gloria in which the loud instruments (trum?pets, timpani and oboes) are left out. Around this are grouped four arias, in which all the soloists from the five-voiced choir get a turn and an oblig-ato part is given to all the instrument groups of the orchestra (violin, flute, oboe, and horn).
One piece that appears to be written partic?ularly with the Dresden musicians in mind is the Laudamus te. The ornamented runs and trills of the mezzo soprano part were a specialty of the renowned Dresden mezzo Faustina Bordoni, while the virtuoso solo violin part could have been written for Johann Georg Pisendel. Another prominent Dresden musician for whom Bach had previously written was the flautist Pierre-Gabriel Buffardin (see the duet Domine Deus), while in the Qui sedes, the virtuoso horn part stands out in particular, alongside the two obligato bas?soons. This section, in 34, is a sort of Polonaise, and thus undoubtedly refers to the Polish monar?chy of Friedrich August II. The horn is also a sym?bol of royalty. Following this, the final section for the complete ensemble, the Cum sancto Spiritu, forms the pinnacle of the Missa, with its ecstasy and its masterly blending of concerto and fugue, which up till then had only been used as separate elements.
Bach left this two-part Missa as it was foi years. But a few years before his death, he decid ed to extend it in a setting of the complete ordi narium missae; a Missa tota. In the transition fron the Sanctus to the Osanna, we find an indicatioi that Bach had been carrying this plan around ii
his head for much longer. Just before its end, the Sanctus is reinforced with a fanfare of trumpets, and this motif is sung at the beginning of the Osanna by the unaccompanied, single-voiced choir. Though this shows that Bach had a direct link in mind, the connection still remains an enig?ma. The Sanctus is from 1724, while the Osanna is based on a worldly cantata from 1732. Was Bach already planning, in 1732, to use this choral piece again as an Osanna And why did he then wait 15 more years before taking the step Whatever the case may be, the fact is that the Sanctus from 1724 is composed on a scale which was unprecedented in Bach's music. It is rewritten as a prelude and fugue in contrasting meters and compositional techniques, with the central focus on the Trinity concept, which plays a main role in Bach's mass as a whole (for instance in the total of 27 [= 3 x 3 x 3] sections). And so there are three, rather than the usual two, oboes, as well as three violin parts and three trumpets. The six-voice choir is continually splitting up into three-voice groups. This makes five three-voiced ensem?bles, with the continuo forming the sixth instru?ment group. The Sanctus is constructed on three musical elements: majestic octave jumps by the continuo, the opening motif with falling thirds (!), and the sustained notes. The tripartite theme is further expressed in the unremitting triplet move?ment of the Sanctus and the 38 time signature of the Pleni sunt coeli. This section is a visionary inspiration by Bach and can be viewed as the heart of the mass as a whole.
Around September 1748, Bach had serious health problems, which left clear traces in his handwriting. It would seem that he decided at that point to realize his plan for a complete mass as quickly as possible. In the following year, he succeeded in filling in the missing sections in the score, in shaky handwriting. Most of them are parody again, but there are one or two excep?tions. Sandwiched between the two exuberant Osannas with the largest complement of the whole mass is a delicate Benedictus with the very smallest of complements (tenor, flute and contin?uo), and Bach composed this section directly in the score. In the Credo, there are two prominent choral sections that are based on the Gregorian intonations belonging to the text, and thus com?posed afresh: the opening Credo in unum Deo and the Confiteor. They both use the stile antico, which results in complex polyphony with many
overlapping entries, especially in the seven-voiced opening sections (two violins, five-voiced choir and continuo). This makes it utterly impossible to hear all the voices and to follow all the entries. It gives the impression of a great crowd singing the Creed through one another. The full orchestra returns in the following concertante fugue, Patrem omnipotentem. Bach makes a sort of dovetail link by having the Credo in unum Deum sung emphatically again above the fugue entries in the Patrem omnipotentem, until this cry is swal?lowed up, as it were, by the tempestuous fugue.
The other stile antico choral piece from the Credo, the Confiteor, is a purely vocal, five-voiced piece (though of course always with continuo). In this, Bach gives the two text phrases their own theme, according to the rules of the stile antico. These are combined with each other right from the beginning, and later on are also combined with the traditional cantus firmus in all sorts of amazing stretti. Bach composed this part directly in the score and next to all the erudition, the counterpoint has something rather improvised about it. In the bridge to the following choral piece, ff expecto, the choir sings "and I expect the resurrection of the dead" with extremely mys?terious harmonies, which undoubtedly symbolize death. When the singers suddenly seem to realize that they are no longer singing about the death, but about the resurrection, the festive jubilation breaks free with no holds barred. For this, Bach uses the choral piece Jauchzet, ihr erfreuten Stimmen from the Ratswahlcantate, BWV 120.
The Credo has only two arias (Ff in unum Deum and f f in Spiritum Sanctum), so the empha?sis lies completely on the seven choral pieces. Originally, the central core of this part of the mass consisted of only two choral pieces, the Crucifixus and the Et resurrexit. These are once again a con?trasting pair based on the text; a chromatic lamento as a symbol of the Crucifixion and a high-spirited concerto (the most exuberant piece of the whole mass) as a symbol of the Resurrection. When the Credo was nearing com?pletion, Bach was obviously dissatisfied with the structure, and he got the idea of separately com?posing the closing line of the duet ff in unum Deum, which reads ff incarnatus est de Spiritu Sancto ex Maria virgine et homo factus est. The new choral piece is on a separate page, written in a rather unsteady hand. It is a homophonic piece with mysterious chords and a dissonant violin part
that insistently repeats the descent of Christ in every bar. It is clearly inspired by music of the lat?est generation of composers, such as Pergolesi, and in all probability it is Bach's very last complete composition.
Program note O Pieter Dirksen, 2006.
@@@@J
os van Veldhoven studied musicology at the Rijks-universiteit of Utrecht, and choral and orchestral conducting at the Royal Conservatory, The Hague. He has been Artistic Director of the Netherlands Bach Society since 1983. In this capacity, he regularly gives perform?ances at home and abroad of the major works of Johann Sebastian Bach, his predecessors, and contemporaries. In addition, he has been the director, since 1976, of the Utrechts Barok Consort, which he founded. With his ensembles he has made a great number of national and international radio, television, and CD recordings, and has appeared in festivals in the Netherlands, many countries in Western Europe, the US, and Japan.
Mr. van Veldhoven is a regular guest artist with international orchestras including Das Orchester der Beethovenhalle Bonn, the Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestra, the Telemann Chamber Orchestra, and the Essener Philharmoniker. Together with Director Dietrich Hilsdorf, Mr. van Veldhoven has been working since 2001 on a cycle of staged Handel oratorios at the Bonn Opera. Mr. van Veldhoven also appears in his native country as a guest conductor, including appearances with Holland Symfonia and Opera Zuid.
In previous years, Mr. van Veldhoven has attracted frequent attention with performances of "new" repertoire within the realm of early music. Noteworthy among them were perform?ances of oratorios by Telemann and Graun, Vespers by Gastoldi, Netherlands repertoire of the Golden Age, reconstructions of Bach's St. Mark Passion, as well as the so-called Kothener Trauer-Music, and many unknown 17th-century musical dialogues.
Mr. van Veldhoven has also conducted many contemporary premieres of baroque operas by composers including Mattheson, Keiser, Andrea and Giovanni Bononcini, Legrenzi, Conti, and Scarlatti. Mr. van Veldhoven is Professor of Choral Conducting at the Amsterdam Conservatory and the Royal Conservatory, The Hague.
@@@@T
he Netherlands Bach Society plays a prominent role in Dutch cultural life. This baroque ensemble owes its existence and acclaim to the performances of Bach's St. Matthew Passion which it has given since 1922, in the Grote Kerk, Naarden. These performances are greatly beloved by the Dutch public, and they attract a yearly audience of more than 12,000. The present-day Netherlands Bach Society con?sists of a group of professional singers and instru?mentalists who are specialized in the performance practice of 17thand 18th-century repertoire. The Artistic Director and Chief Conductor of the Netherlands Bach Society is Jos van Veldhoven. The Netherlands Bach Society gives approximate?ly 50 concerts a year, primarily by works of Johann Sebastian Bach, his contemporaries, and prede-
Netherlands Bach Society
cessors. There is a wide range of programming, from the major baroque works to lesser-known compositions and smaller-scale repertoire. The flexibility of the ensemble enables it to give per?formances with both large and small settings, of both religious and secular choral and orchestral music. The Netherlands Bach Society has there?fore performed an impressive number of works, including many compositions receiving their first-ever, present-day performances. This creative pro?gramming serves as an inspiration for both musi?cians and the public alike.
Most concerts take place in the Netherlands. Successful concert tours have taken the ensemble to France, Italy, Spain, Portugal, Germany, Poland, Norway, Japan, and the US. About half of the yearly projects are conducted by Artistic Director Jos van Veldhoven. On other occasions, the Netherlands Bach Society has collaborated with prominent early music conductors such as Gustav Leonhardt, Paul McCreesh, Marcus Creed, and Masaaki Suzuki. The Netherlands Bach Society has made several CD recordings in a successful cooperation with Channel Classics Records including innovative and critically acclaimed recordings of lesser-known works by Dutch and Italian composers.
Soprano Dorothee Mields studied in Bremen with Elke Holzmann and in Stuttgart with Julia Hamari. After completing her studies, she first collaborated extensively with conductors Ludger Remy and Thomas Hengelbrock. The music of the 17th and 18th centuries became a major focus of her musical activities early in her career. Contemporary music also forms an increasingly important part of her repertoire. Among other works, she sang the title role in the world pre?miere of J.M. Staud's opera Berenice (Munich Biennale 2004). Today, a steadily growing discog-raphy of over 40 recordings, some of which have won awards, documents her active concert career. Ms. Mields is a welcomed guest at international festivals such as the Leipzig Bach Festival, Suntory Music Foundation Festival, Boston Early Music Festival, Flanders Festival, Vienna Festival, the Handel Festivals in Halle and Gottingen, and the Tanglewood Festival.
Ms. Mields performs regularly with Collegium Vocale Gent, the Bach Collegium Japan, the Netherlands Bach Society, Flanders Recorder Quartet, Ensemble Orchestral de Paris,
Klangforum Wien, and with conductors Ivor Bolton, Beat Furrer, Martin Haselbock, Philippe Herreweghe, Gustav Leonhardt, Kenneth Montgomery, Helmut Muller-Bruhl, Hans-Christoph Rademann, Stephen Stubbs, and Jos van Veldhoven. Recent highlights have been recordings of Schuster's opera Demofoonte, Haydn's The Creation, and a recording of C.P.E. Bach's Songs after Christoph Furchtegott Gellert with Ludger Remy at the pianoforte as well as Boulez's Pli selon pli at the Berlin Konzerthaus, Bach's St. Matthew Passion conducted by Philippe Herreweghe at the Amsterdam Concertgebouw, Mozart's Exsultate, jubilate with the Tokyo Symphony Orchestra, the Faure Requiem with the Mahler Chamber Orchestra, and Bach Cantatas with the Bach Collegium Japan under the baton of Masaaki Suzuki at the Tokyo Opera City Concert Hall.
The Dutch soprano Johannette Zomer began her studies at the Sweelinck Conservatorium Amsterdam in 1990 with Charles van Tassel, after having worked as a microbiology analyst for sev?eral years. In June 1997 she was awarded her Performance Diploma. Her present coach is Diane Forlano in London.
Her repertoire, as shown in her discography, ranges from medieval music (Cantigas de Santa Maria) through all music of the baroque and clas?sical eras, including opera, lieder (Schubert songs), French Romanticism (Faure's Requiem), and contemporary music. Gramaphone magazine wrote she is "a new voice to watch." She has worked with Baroque specialists such as Philippe Herreweghe, Ton Koopman, Frans Briiggen, Rene Jacobs, Reinard Goebel, and Paul McCreesh, and has also worked with conductors including Kent Nagano, Daniel Harding, Valery Gergiev, Reinbert de Leeuw, and Peter Eotvos.
Ms. Zomer regularly gives recitals accompa?nied by fortepiano specialist Arthur Schoonderwoerd. She is a member of the early music ensembles Compania Vocale and Antequera with whom she sings NapolitanSpanish Baroque and Medieval Cantigas. In October 1996 Ms. Zomer made her opera debut as the page Tebaldo in Verdi's Don Carlo with the Nationale Reisopera (the Dutch Touring Opera Company). Since then she has made regular appearances in several roles, includ?ing Amanda in Ligeti's Le Grand Macabre.
The Canadian countertenor Matthew White
graduated with a degree in English Literature at McGill University and currently studies with Jan Simons. He recently won the Canada Council Grant for Emerging Artists and is a recipient of the Adams Vocal Fellowship at the Carmel Bach Festival.
Mr. White has already gained an enviable reputation for excellence in a young career and his ever-expanding career includes appearances worldwide. In Europe, he sings with the Netherlands Bach Society, the Utrecht Early Music Festival, Le Parlement de Musique, and Le Concert Spirituel. In the US, he sings regularly with the Portland Baroque Orchestra and the Four Nations Ensemble and has traveled as far as New Zealand to appear with the Christchurch City Choir in Handel's Messiah. In opera, his roles include Ottone in L'lncoronazione di Poppea for the Houston Grand Opera and the Toronto Consort, Monteverdi's Orfeo for the Toronto Consort, Hercules in Handel's The Choice Of Hercules for Modem Baroque Opera, and the title role in Gluck's Orfeo for the Festival International de Musique Baroque de Lameque. Mr. White tours, records, and performs frequently with Toronto's Tafelmusik Baroque Ensemble and other leading early music ensembles. A proven per?former in Canada, he has also appeared with the Vancouver Chamber Choir, the Edmonton Symphony, Thirteen Strings of Ottawa, and the Chamber Music Festival and Symphony Nova Scotia. He is a founding member of Montreal's Ensemble Les Voix Baroques. Mr. White has recorded Handel's Messiah with Tafelmusiklvars Taurins for CBC Records, Carrissimi's Jepthe and Jonas with the Studio de Musique Ancienne de Montreal for Analektam, and Bach Cantatas with Aradia Ensemble.
Tenor Charles Daniels' repertoire extends 1150 years from the ninth century to the present day. He received his musical training at King's College in Cambridge and the Royal College of Music in London where he studied under Edward Brooks. He has made over 60 recordings as a soloist including Handel's Messiah with the Gabrieli Consort, Dowland songs, Handel's Alexander Balus with The King's Consort, Schutz's Christmas Story, Haydn's St. Cecilia Mass with the Gulbenkian Choir and Orchestra, Bach's Easter Oratorio with the Taverner Consort, and Handel Occasional songs with Emma Kirkby. He has
recorded more than 20 discs of Purcell's music, mostly with The King's Consort.
Operatic roles have included Le Dieu de Sommeil in Lully's -Afys for the Opera de Paris and a leading role in Purcell's Fairy Queen at the Aix-en-Provence Festival. Concert engagements have included Monteverdi's Orfeo with the Toronto Consort, the Evangelist in Bach's St. John Passion with the Academy of Ancient Music, and various Handel oratoria, including Esther, Joshua, and the Messiah. He has recently performed Purcell's Odes with the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment under Gustav Leonhardt amd Bach's St. Matthew Passion and Mass in b minor on tour with the Netherlands Bach Society. His repertoire also includes 20th-century music including Stravinsky's Cantata and Finzi's Dies Natalis.
Bass Peter Harvey studied at Magdalen College in Oxford and then at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London. His broad repertoire includes works from the early Baroque to con?temporary composers, although he is principally known through his performances as soloist with ensembles specializing in early music, including the English Baroque Soloists, the Gabrieli Consort, and The King's Consort. He is frequently invited abroad by continental groups such as the Collegium Vocale of Ghent and the Netherlands Bach Society. He had the honor of singing the St. John Passion with the Choir of St. Thomas' on their first visit to England, and subsequently in Leipzig for a Good Friday performance.
Mr. Harvey's more than 100 solo recordings cover a wide variety of works from the 17th cen?tury to the present day, and include both the well-loved and the unknown. However, the music of J.S. Bach forms the core of his repertoire, both in performances and recordings. Amongst many other works, he recorded the renowned solo can?tata BWV 82 for bass voice, Ich habe genug, for Deutsche Grammophon. Other major Bach recordings include a very favorably received solo-voices version of the St. Matthew Passion with the Gabrieli Consort, in which he sings the role of Christus and arias. Recent career highlights include a BBC prom concert of Purcell's The Fairy Queen and Handel's Athalia in Madrid, both with the Gabrieli Consort. Mr. Harvey recently sang the St. John Passion with the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment and he performed the Christmas Oratorio with the Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra. Mr. Harvey is a visiting professor at the Royal College of Music in London.
Netherlands Bach Society
Jos van Veldhoven, Conductor
Soprano 1
Sara Jaggi Marieke Steenhoek
Soprano 2
Lauren Armishaw Klaartje van Veldhoven
Alto
Daniel Lager
(solo in Sanctus) Elena Pozhidaeva
Tenor
Immo Schroder Simon Wall
Bass
Matthew Baker Donald Bentvelsen
Violin 1
Johannes Leertouwer Sayuri Yamagata Annelies van de Vegt
Violin 2
Paulien Kostense Pieter Affourtit
Viola
Staas Swierstra
Cello
Richte van der Meer
Double-Bass
Robert Franenberg
Flute
Marten Root Doretthe Janssens
Trumpet
PO Lindeke Leif Bengtsson Andreas Bengtsson
Oboe
Peter Frankenberg Abigail Graham Sophie Rebreyend
Bassoon
Jane Gower Gyorgi Farkas
Horn
Teunis van der Zwart
Timpani
Peppie Wiersma
Organ
Siebe Henstra
Harpsichord
Pieter Jan Belder
UMS ARCHIVES
T
his evening's performance marks the Netherlands Bach Society and Maestro van Veldhoven's UMS debuts. It also marks the UMS debuts of Ms. Mields, Mr. White, and Mr. Daniels.
Tonight's performance marks Johannette Zomer's second UMS appearance following her February 2002 UMS debut as soprano soloist with the Collegium Vocale Gent. Tonight also marks bass Peter Harvey's second UMS appearance following his April 2003 UMS debut as bass soloist with the Gabrieli Consort and Players.
Bach's Mass in b minor has rarely been performed in UMS's 128-year history. Excerpts were performed in three consecutive May Festivals in the 1920s, but the first complete performance of the work did not occur until 1953, when the UMS Choral Union performed it with the Philadelphia Orchestra. Interestingly, more than 40 years passed before it was performed again under UMS auspices, this time by the UMS Choral Union and the Toledo Symphony in March 1996.
ums University Musical Society
and
Pfizer Global Research
and Development
present
Trinity Irish Dance Company
Artistic Director and Founder Mark Howard
Associate Artistic Directors Deirdre Mahoney and Ellen Gahl
Rehearsal Director Ashley Purl
Company
Erin Aquino Briana Blahnik Billy Donahue Torrey Duns Ellen Gahl Eileen Healy
Sheila Healy Katie Irwin Briana Kliesmet Colleen Lapota Samantha Morrealle Carin Nash
Amanda Pudil Ashley Purl Melissa Ricksecker Whitney Rondeau Katherine Whelan
Musicians
Barret Harvey Christopher Layer John Condron
Production Stage Manager Rebecca Hibbs Production Sound Engineer Erik West
Program
Choreography by Mark Howard
Friday Evening, April 20, 2007 at 8:00 Saturday Afternoon, April 21, 2007 at 1:00
(One-Hour Family Performance) Saturday Evening, April 21, 2007 at 8:00 Power Center Ann Arbor
The Mist (1991)
MUSICAL INTERLUDE
@@@@Choreography by Mark Howard
Choreography by Mark Howard
Choreography by Mark Howard
Step About (1991) Blackthorn (1992)
Johnny (1990)
MUSICAL INTERLUDE
Choreography by Sean Curran in collaboration with the dancers
Choreography by Mark Howard
Choreography by Sean Curran
Choreography by Mark Howard
Choreographed by Mark Howard and Richard Griffin
Choreography by Mark Howard
Choreography by Mark Howard
Curran Event (2000)
Just Shannon (1993)
INTERMISSION Goddess (2004) Treble Jig (1995) The Dawn (1997)
MUSICAL INTERLUDE Black Rose (2004)
MUSICAL INTERLUDE Trinity (2006)
68th, 69th, and 70th Performances of the 128th Annual Season
16th Annual Dance Series
The photographing or sound and video record?ing of this performance or possession of any device for such recording is prohibited.
This performance is sponsored by Pfizer Global Research and Development: Ann Arbor Laboratories. Special thanks to David Canter, Senior Vice President of Pfizer, for his continued and generous support of University Musical Society.
Additional support provided by Robert and Pearson Macek.
Funded in part by the Performing Arts Fund, a program of Arts Midwest funded by the National Endowment for the Arts with additional contributions from General Mills Foundation, Land O'Lakes Foundation, and Michigan Council for Arts and Cultural Affairs.
The 0607 Family Series is sponsored by Toyota Technical Center.
Media partnership provided by Metro Times and WEMU 89.1 FM.
Trinity Irish Dance Company appear by arrangement with CAMI Ventures, LLC.
Large print programs are available upon request.
The Mist (1991)
Choreography fay Mark Howard Original Music by Mike Kirkpatrick Vocals by Yvonne Bruner Lighting Design by Stan Pressner Costumes by Gregory Slawko
"Through the deep night, a magic mist led me.
Step About (1991)
Choreography by Mark Howard
Music by Liz Carroll
Lighting Design by Stan Pressner
Johnny (1990)
Choreography by Mark Howard Original Music by Mike Kirkpatrick Vocals by Yvonne Bruner Lighting Design by Stan Pressner Costumes by Birgit Rattenborg Wise
Created for and premiered by the Trinity Irish Dance Company on NBC's The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson, NBC Studios, Burbank, California, on March 15, 1991. The show isn't the same since Johnny left...neither is this piece!
Johnny has been sponsored by a generous grant in memory of Florence Borchert Bartling.
Curran Event (2000)
Choreography by Sean Curran in collaboration with the dancers
Original Music by Kila
Body Percussion Originally Developed with Tigger Benford
Lighting Design by Stan Pressner
Costumes by Sean Curran and Rose Marie McGarry
Soloist Ashley Purl
Using techniques from the post-modern choreographer's toolbox, Curran has added arm movements and body percussion rhythms for hands (slapping, clapping, and snapping) to Celtic fleet footwork.
Just Shannon (1993)
Choreography by Mark Howard Music by Liz CarrollTraditional Tunes Lighting Design by Stan Pressner Costumes by Brigit Rattenborg Wise Soloist Torrey Duns
"The Downfall of Paris" is a set-dance typical of those performed by competitive Irish dancers on the worldwide Feiseanna (Gaelic for "competitions") circuit.
Goddess (2004)
Choreography by Sean Curran Music by Sheila Chandra Costumes by Agnes Mahoney
A fusion of East Indian movement meeting percussive Irish Dance.
Sponsored by a generous grant from the Ann E. and Joseph Heil Jr. Charitable Trust.
Treble Jig (1995)
Choreography by Mark Howard Original Music by Jimmy Moore Music arranged by Patrick Broaders Lighting Design by Stan Pressner Costumes by Birgit Rattenborg Wise
Treble Jigs are played in the 68 time signature and performed in "jig shoes," which were the precursor to American tap shoes. Historically, when the British tried to Anglicize Ireland by wiping out Gaelic traditions, Irish tunes were kept alive by teaching the youth to tap out the rhythms in the privacy of the home. Through adversity, a beautiful art form flourished.
The Dawn (1997)
Choreographed by Mark Howard & Richard Griffin Music by Stone and Liz Carroll Lighting Design by Stan Pressner Costumes by Birgit Rattenborg Wise
At the dawn of May, a platoon of tall beautiful women landed on Irish shores. Warriors all, they had come from Spain. In April of 1998, the company won the gold medal for the United States at the World Championships of Irish Dance with their performance of this piece.
T
he Trinity Irish Dance Company quickly dispels whatever notions you may have about Irish dance. Founded in 1990 by Artistic Director Mark Howard as a means of pro?viding professional career opportunities to stu?dents who formerly had no outlet for their dance training beyond the competitive circuit, this inno?vative nonprofit company is constantly searching for original means of expression while maintain?ing a high regard for old traditions. Trinity, a uniquely Irish-American company, was the birth?place of progressive Irish dance which opened new avenues of artistic expression that led to commercial productions such as Riverdance.
A majority of the company's dancers came through the ranks of the prestigious Trinity Academy of Irish Dance, the ChicagoMilwaukee-based school that has garnered an unprecedent?ed number of team world titles for the US at the World Championships of Irish Dance. Many of them have danced together since they were chil?dren; building an instinctual bond that allows them to take risks no other company would dare attempt. Their years of rigorous training are evi?dent in every perfectly paced spin, leap and click, making them a lethal powerhouse of speed and sound that has electrified audiences around the world.
Not content to be simply the worlds best, however, Founding Artistic Director and Emmy Award-winning choreographer Mark Howard has moved outside the framework of ethnicity, expanding the company's range and repertoire in a host of imaginative and new directions. By using Irish dance as an instrument and a metaphor, Trinity crosses both cultural and disciplinary boundaries in important ways. The result is a thor?oughly fresh and engaging artistic vision that goes beyond the source without losing touch with its essence.
Over the past several years, the company also has collaborated with many noted contem?porary choreographers which have led them to an increased vocabulary of movement and the devel?opment of a unique form of story ballet which tells the ancient and modern history of the Irish-American people through dance and specially commissioned live music. One of Mr. Howard's life long students, Deirdre Mahoney, was named as Associate Artistic Director of the company in 2003. Deirdre is the first of many young choreog?raphers that will emerge from the bridges built by
the unique Trinity program.
The Trinity Irish Dance Company, made up of dancers between the ages of 18 and 28, has per?formed to great critical and popular acclaim on stages throughout the world, with sold-out tours in Europe and Asia and appearances in such dis?tinguished US venues as Washington's Kennedy Center, New York's Joyce and New Victory Theatres, and Los Angeles's Royce Hall. The com?pany has appeared in feature films by Disney, Dream Works, Touchstone, and Universal includ?ing Backdraft and The Road to Perdition and on national television programs including The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson and Jay Leno, Late Night with Conan O'Brien, CBS This Morning, Live with Regis, and Good Morning America. The company has toured internationally as invited guests for dignitaries as varied as the Royal Family in Monaco, Ireland's President Mary Robinson, and Indian meditation master Gurumayi Chidvilasananda. Trinity has won two Emmy Awards for their appearance on the PBS television specials One Step Beyond and World Stage, and were featured in the ABC special Dignity of Children, hosted by Oprah Winfrey.
Trinity holds a unique place in the dance world, offering both a highly skilled presentation of traditional Irish step dance and a brilliantly engaging interpretation of contemporary world vision.
@@@@M
ark Howard (Artistic DirectorFounder) is crossing dance and cultural bound?aries in important ways by using Irish dance as both instrument and metaphor. For the past 10 years this Emmy Award-winning choreog?rapher has been striving for and achieving that which is profoundly significant and equally diffi?cult to attain--the transcendence of craft to art and the synthesis of forms to create something that is forward-looking and new. His work main?tains integrity while simultaneously going beyond the framework of ethnicity to carve new tradi?tions. Born in Yorkshire, England, and raised in Chicago, Mr. Howard began his dancing career at age nine at the Dennehy School of Irish Dance. A North American champion Irish dancer himself, he launched the Trinity Academy of Irish Dance at age 17, subsequently leading them to an unprecedented 18 World Championship titles for the US, the first when he was only 25. Since its
Mark Howard
inception over 20 years ago, the Trinity Academy has grown from a dozen students practicing in a church basement to the largest Irish dance pro?gram in the world. Intent on preserving the lega?cy of Irish dance while providing a creative outlet and professional livelihood for dancers at the peak of their abilities, Mr. Howard formed the Trinity Irish Dance Company at the age of 29. Before that time there were no Irish step dancers performing collectively outside the competitive realm. Mr. Howard continues to choreograph new works for the company as well as expanding his independent career to work in theater, television, concert, and film. In 1994 and 2001, he was named one of Irish American magazine's "Top 100 Irish-Americans" for his innovative work in Irish dance. In 1991, his PBS production of Green Fire and Ice aired nationally, and in 2002, PBS began airing One Step Beyond. Mr. Howard's early work found a common rhythm and move?ment between African and Celtic dance, which was an integral part of the 1993 Emmy Award-winning PBS special World Stage. In 1995 his cho?reography was presented in the ABC special About Us: The Dignity of Children, hosted by Oprah Winfrey. Mr. Howard has done extensive film work for Disney, Touchstone, Universal, and Dream Works, working with the likes of directors Ron Howard (Backdraft) and Sam Mendes {American Beauty). Lara Flynn Boyle {The Practice)
and Kate Hudson (Almost Famous) are among the celebrities who have been his students. Most recently, Howard was hired by Dreamworks as choreographer for the film Road to Perdition. During this time Mr. Howard worked as personal dance coach for Tom Hanks. Mr. Howard was a regular guest on The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson from 1988 until 1990, and his national television credits include Late Night with Conan O'Brien, Live with Regis, Good Morning America, and CBS This Morning. Mr. Howard's choreogra?phy also has been featured on the stages of Chicago's prestigious Goodman and Steppenwolf Theatres, and has led to numerous Choreographers' Fellowships awarded by the National Endowment for the Arts. His undying energy and unique vision have significantly changed the direction and scope of Irish dance, re-introducing the form as the phenomenon that it is today.
Deirdre Mahoney (Associate Artistic Director) is the proud daughter of Irish immigrants (Kerry and Mayo) and a founding member of the Trinity Irish Dance Company. Ms. Mahoney began dancing at the age of five with the Trinity Academy of Irish Dance, and today shares her love and knowledge of the art form as a lead instructor. Her education as a dancer included a primary focus in Irish Dance, which led to studies in multi-cultural dances such as East Indian and West African. Determined to perfect Irish Dance in its tradition?al form while exploring its endless possibilities, she was a member of the first American team to win a gold medal in Choreography at the World Championship of Irish Dance. Through the years, she had the opportunity to learn from, and col?laborate with, such diverse talents as Sean Curran, Ashley Roland, and Harrison McEldowney, and co-choreographed the piece, Out of the Woods with TIDC founder Mark Howard.
Ellen Gahl (Associate Artistic Director) gained her extensive knowledge of Irish Dance at the McGing Irish Dancers in Cincinnati, Ohio. Since the age of nine, she has worked diligently towards the career she now holds with the Trinity Irish Dance Company. Her days of assisting class?es in Cincinnati and love of the form led to her to an Ohio State University degree in Dance
Education. Ms. Gahl holds a BA in the Personalized Study Program, specializing in Irish Dance Education. She exploded onto the per?forming arts scene in 2002 after being signed by the Trinity Irish Dance Company. She is currently developing national, regional, and local outreach programs for TIDC.
Ashley Purl (Rehearsal Director) is an 11-year
veteran of the Trinity Irish Dance Company. Ms. Purl has performed throughout North America, Europe, and Asia in such venues as New York's Joyce Theater to the Orchard Hall in Tokyo. While honing her dancing skills as a student of the Trinity Academy of Irish Dance, in 1998 she brought back a gold medal from the World Championships for the groundbreaking choreog?raphy in The Dawn. Since then, she has continued to co-choreograph pieces for the TIDC in addition to performing, both to critical acclaim. While not dancing, Ms. Purl can be found working as a free?lance make-up artist and stylist or as a model under the representation of Iris Talent in her hometown of Chicago. Her national television appearances include Live with Regis and she was featured in the Emmy Award-winning PBS docu?mentary One Step Beyond. Most recently she appeared in the inaugural season of the FOX Television's So You Think You Can Dance
Sean Curran began his dance training with tradi?tional Irish step dancing as a young boy in Boston. He went on to make his mark on the dance world as principal dancer with the Bill T. JonesArnie Zane Dance Company. He received a New York Dance and Performance Bessie Award for his per?formance in Secret Pastures. A graduate and guest faculty member of New York University's Tisch School of the Arts, Curran was a member of the cast of the off-Broadway percussion extrava?ganza STOMP! for the past four years. He has per?formed his solo evening of dances at venues throughout the US as well as at Sweden's Danstation Theatre. Mr. Curran's recent projects include a new work for Pittsburgh's Dance Alloy, Dublin's Irish Modern Dance Theatre, and a restaging on the students at the Alvin Ailey American Dance Center. Mr. Curran taught this past summer at the Bates Dance Festival and the Boston Conservatory of Music. He was awarded a 1998 Choreographer's Fellowship from the New York Foundation for the Arts. Sean Curran
Company was presented in the Joyce Theater's Altogether Different Series. The company also performed at the Jacob's Pillow Dance Festival, where it premiered the National Dance Project commission Six Laments. The company performs throughout venues in the US and was presented by the Cannes Dance Festival.
Richard Griffin is one of the most innovative and progressive choreographers of Irish Dance today. He has won 35 World titles in every discipline: solo, ceili, dance drama, and figure choreography. In addition, he choreographed Gaelforce Dance. Mr. Griffin has worked with various dance groups in Ireland, the US, Canada, and Switzerland, and has been working with Trinity for 10 years. Together with FounderArtistic Director, Mark Howard, they have created some of the best fig?ure choreographies in the world. The Dawn has won countless titles from National to World com?petitions of Irish Dance.
UMS ARCHIVES
T
his weekend's performances mark Trinity Irish Dance Company's third, fourth, and fifth appearances under UMS auspices. The Company made their UMS debut in January 1999 at the Power Center.
Musicians
Barret Harvey began his percussive journey at age 10 thanks to world-renowned puppet rock drummer, Animal. He later refined his tastes falling in love with the styles of Buddy Rich, Mick Fleetwood, Stewart Copeland, Mitch Mitchell, John Bonham, Vinnie Coliauta, and Steve Gadd. Barret has had the privilege of being a Yamaha artist since 1997.
As a first-call recording artist, Mr. Harvey has added his distinct drumming approach to count?less recordings--in all styles. His commercial suc?cess has carried him to the likes of Disney, Ford, Nintendo, Coors, Budweiser, Gatorade, Nextel, Kraft, Allstate, and NASCAR. As a sought-after
live performer, Mr. Harvey has traveled the world playing international festivals, large stages, and prestigious venues. For more information, please visit barretharvey.com.
Christopher Layer is a gifted multi-instrumental?ist and plays the Irish "Uilleann" pipes, Simple System Wood Flutes, Pennywhistle, Scottish Highland Bagpipes, Scottish Small pipes, bassoon, and bass. As one of the premiere traditional musi?cians in the US, Mr. Layer has sought to bring the music of the Uilleann pipes and Irish flute to ever-widening audiences around the world. Traditional music was a staple in his family home in Indiana, and his classical skills where honed at The Hargreaves School of Music at Ball State University, Muncie, Indiana, and at the prestigious Indiana University School of Music, Bloomington.
John Condron, at the age of five, received his first guitar, and shortly thereafter began perform?ing choral music with the world-renowned Philadelphia Boys Choir. John's tenure in the choir, which included three world tours and countless performances, solidified his love for connecting with an audience through music. He eventually began to focus on writing his own songs. Mr. Condron became a founding member of the Philadelphia based J.C. Taxi. They would go on to tour the East Coast for three years. John Condron and the Benefit are currently performing through?out the Midwest, promoting the new CD, Down to Dorsey, and the newly released ep, Loud as Silence, both of which can be conveniently pur?chased at www.johncondron.com. In addition to his own endeavors, John has been thrilled to tour with the Trinity Irish Dance Company over the past two years.
Gregory W. Slawko (Costume Designer) has designed his way across the country with projects ranging from stage to screen over a nearly 20-year career. He also has done wardrobe construc?tion for major motion pictures including The Babe with John Goodman, A League of Their Own with Geena Davis and Madonna, Hero with Dustin Hoffman, and The Hudsucker Proxy with Paul Newman. He recently received an MFA degree in Theater Design from Northwestern University and owns and operates his own business called Masque Appeal.
Rebecca Hibbs (Production Stage Manager) is a recent graduate of the University of Michigan with a BFA in Theatre Design and Production, with a concentration in Lighting Design. Chicago design credits include Godspell and Hfob-n-Tales, both with TriArts Theatre Company. She also served as both lighting designer and stage man?ager for A Hullabaloo for Hope, a gathering of Chicago artists performing to fight AIDS. U-M designs include: Don't Dress for Dinner, The Good Person of Szechwan, Measure for Measure, Waiting for Lefty, And Baby Makes Seven, and Control Freaks. Asst. lighting designer: 7b Kill a Mockingbird; asst. master electrician: The Tempest. Regional work includes Whistler at The Performance Network in Ann Arbor, and contin?ued work with Young People's Theatre and Dance Ensemble of Michigan.
Erik West (Sound Engineer) has been working in the entertainment industry for over 15 years. Along with being a live sound engineer for 15 years and a house engineer at the Milwaukee Irish Festival for nine years, Mr. West also mixes audio for Fox Sports Net and ESPN. He has also earned notoriety for his videography, production, and art direction on several television shows. He has six ChicagoMidwest Emmy nominations and two Emmy awards. Mr. West sees working with Trinity as a labor of love due to the truth and soul that the Company and organization possess.
Trinity Irish Dance Company
Founder and Artistic Director, Mark Howard Associate Artistic Director, Deirdre Mahoney Associate Artistic Director. Ellen Gahl Rehearsal Director. Ashley Purl Production Stage Manager. Rebecca Hibbs Sound Engineer, Erik West Company Manager, Dan Waller Artistic Associate, Corey O'Grapher Webmaster. Romolo Russo Inspiration, Brian UrlacherUsher
Please visit Trinity Irish Dance Company online at www.trinityirishdancecompany.org
Special thanks to the following for their choreographic andor musical contributions to the company: Patrick Broaders, Yvonne Bruner, Sean Cleland. Winston Damon (Stone), Jim DeWan, Brian Frette, Brian Grant, Kevin Henry, Brendan McKinney, Marie Duffy Messenger, Kevin McCormack, Ashley Roland, Michael Smith, and Jamie Hampton.
ums University Musical Society
presents
Los Folkloristas
Jose Avila Adrian Nieto Olga Alanis Gabriela Rodriguez Enrique Hernandez Efren Vargas Omar Valdes
Program
Bolivian tonada Mexican son huasteco Venezuelan merengue
Carlos Chazarreta, Argentinian zamba
Gerardo Tamez, Mexico Mexican Pirecua Colombian cumbia Jose Avila, Mexico
Sunday Afternoon, April 22, 2007 at 4:00 Rackham Auditorium Ann Arbor
Carnaval Betanceno
El Fandanguito
Juana
El Musiquero
Tierra Mestiza Flor de Tirinkini Mi Cascabel Raiz Viva
INTERMISSION
Chilean cueca Adrian Nieto, Mexico Mexican musica huave
Fernando Barriento and Osvaldo Montes, Argentina
Dominican Republic merengue
Fernando Sobrino, Mexican Son jarocho
Mexican danzas de concheros
La Pollera y la Chiquilla Son de la Muerte Negritos Vientos del Alma
Juanita Morey
Agua Que Cae del Cielo
El Venado y la Paloma
71st Performance of the 128th Annual Season
Global Series:
Mexico and the Americas
The photographing or sound and video record?ing of this concert or possession of any device for such recording is prohibited.
Funded in part by the National Endowment for the Arts, which believes that a great nation deserves great art.
Educational programs funded in part by the Whitney Fund at the Community Foundation for Southeastern Michigan.
Media partnership provided by WEMU 89.1 FM and Michigan Radio. Los Folkloristas appear by arrangement with SRO Artists, Inc.
Large print programs are available upon request.
Los Folkloristas
W
hether on traditional guitars and vio?lins, or with dried butterfly cocoons, turtle shells, and the Yaqui water drum, Los Folkloristas perform the music of Latin America with expertise and spirit. Now approaching 35 years as a group, this collection of seven singersmusicians has traveled extensive?ly across the countries of Central and South America as well as Mexico, learning their music first-hand on many occasions, from village elders and regional campesino musicians. The group has released nearly 30 recordings in Mexico, South America, Europe, and the US as well as contribut?ing the soundtracks for the American movies, Under Fire, and the award-winning El Norte and My Family-Mi Familia.
This afternoon's performance marks Los Folkloristas' UMS debut.
Jose Avila is one of three original Folkloristas still with the group after 25 years. Besides acting as principle arranger for the group, Mr. Avila (known as "Pepe") also runs the group's record label, Discos Pueblo. He was recently very involved in the creation of the soundtrack to the movie My Family which was produced by Francis Ford Coppola and directed by Gregory Nava. He and his wife, Beatriz, have two children.
Olga Alanis has been in the group for nearly 15 years, singing lead vocals in her own infectious style and playing various percussions and strings.
Adrian Nieto, one of the groups founding mem?bers, joined as a performer one year after Los Folkloristas' inception. He has provided many of the arrangements for the traditional material from Mexico and has also composed several original pieces, which have been recorded by Los Folkloristas. He plays violin, guitars, and other assorted strings.
Gabriela Rodriguez is one of the newest mem?bers of the group, having joined in the spring of 1993. She sings alto and plays a variety of instru?ments.
Efren Vargas Payan was born in Mexico City. Of Oaxacan parents, he learned from them the love of the music and traditions of his country. He began to play guitar at age 12, and at this time came to know the music of Los Folkloristas through a few records and began to make con?tact with Latin American folk music. He per?formed with the groups Vuelta a la Izquierda and Siembra, acquiring experience with the tradition?al Mexican musical instruments. He also began to explore the popular music of Latin America including salsa, cumbia, and Caribbean rhythms like reggae and ska, performing on electric bass. Since 1988, Mr. Payan has been part of the musi-
cal accompaniment to Musical de Mexico, the national company of folk dance which traveled throughout Mexico, the US, Canada, Europe, and South and Central America. He joined Los Folkloristas in January of 1999.
Enrique Hernandez Huerta began his musical journey in traditional Latin American music in 1982 in the group Painani. He founded the semi?nal group Zazhil, performing Latin folk music and providing accompaniment for the Ballet Folkloricos of Amalia Hernandez, Sylvia Lozano, and Nieves Paniagua. They also produced seven recordings and recorded with such popular singers as Amparo Ochoa, Oscar Chavez, and Tehua. Enrique currently resides in Mexico City and plays strings, flutes, and percussion for Los Folkloristas.