"Traditions" Concert Photos

 Thanks to everyone involved with the Traditions Fall Concert. Thanks to musicians, staff, and patrons for the photos.

Link: Program on website

Before the concert

After the Concert

SUU World Music Class

short rehearsal video link

"Traditions" Concert on Nov. 10, 2022

Orchestra of Southern Utah to Perform Treasures From Around the World

Written by Mary Furse

The variety of classical styles is surprisingly vast and rich, especially when infused with traditional music from different parts of the world. The Orchestra of Southern Utah’s upcoming program paints wide-sweeping musical landscapes. Conductor Carylee Zwang directs the orchestra.

Zhou Long’s “King Chu Doffs His Armour” Concerto for Pipa, featuring soloist Celia Yu Liu, depicts a masterful warrior of ancient China, first in mastery of battle, and then in the despair of defeat. The intensity of this character is voiced by the pipa, a traditional Chinese instrument. The soloist has recorded for Disney "Mulan" and Warner Brothers "Kung Fu".

Due to sudden illness the bassoon concerto has been postponed.

Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov based Capriccio Espagnol on folk tunes of Spain. The suite opens with a splash of joyful revelry, and even when things slow down, there’s a sense of life, wellbeing, and warmth evocative of Mediterranean climes. By the end, the fire and passion that has been simmering in the undertones burst out in the brightest colors of the orchestra.

Swedish Rhapsody by Hugo Afven is a collection of folk melodies inspired by Swedish Midsummer traditions. Songs of longing and loneliness pervade, relieved often by lively dance tunes reminiscent of a gathering after a hard day’s work. The rhapsody culminates in a roiling climax like a dancing fury or summer storm, before falling back into repose.

Travel the world with OSU on Thursday, November 10, at 7:30 p.m. at the Heritage Theater. Concert ticket prices are as follows: $12 for adults, $6 for students over six years. Children over six years are welcome. No babes-in-arms, please, as concerts are recorded. Tickets are now available online at www.myosu.org.

This concert is also part of the Cedar City Birthday Celebrations and cake will be served afterwards in the lobby.

Sponsors include the Carhles Maxfield Parrish and Gloria F. Parrish Foundation, George S. and Dolores Doré Eccles Foundation, Artisans Gallery, Sino US Performing Arts Organization, RAP Tax, and Cedar City Corporation.

Poster design by Rollan Fell

Preview the music at https://osulistening.blogspot.com/2022/11/nov-concert-preview-and-music-education.html?fbclid=IwAR1cKCRGhNX7V8hzyZ_NPBXLv-zU80bqHd8iKg_NHoB_KVEtiFADQiGn2qY

More on Guest Soloist:

Celia Yu Liu

Ms. Celia Yu Liu is a well-known Pipa and Guzheng artist. She was born into a family of
musicians in Changsha, China. When her mother introduced her to the Pipa at the age of eight,
she immediately developed a special interest in its music. She excelled as a top contestant and
entered the prestigious Central Conservatory of Music in Beijing. Upon graduation in 1988, she
was recruited as a leading Pipa performer in the National Chinese Music Orchestra. In 1989,
Ms. Liu won the prize for outstanding Performance in Pipa at the Art Cup International
Competition of Chinese Musical Instruments. Since then, She was frequently invited to play in
Beijing Concert Hall, national TV concerts and represented China to show her music in many
occasions, including international music festivals in German, Singapore and United States.
Ms. Liu arrived in the United States in 1991, not only to continue her musical career but to
explore broader stages and opportunities.
     She continued to perform her music with entities such as the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra at Disney Concert Hall for Lou Harrison’s Contemporary opera “Young Caesar” in June 2017. She performed with Hollywood Bowl Symphonic Orchestra. She recorded soundtracks for over hundreds of TV series with Warner Brothers such as “Kung Fu” and the movie “ Pavilion of Woman” with the Universal. Her music appeared at national NBC Channel “Good Morning Sunday” show. She also played American Anthem at opening ceremony of a NBA basketball game at the Sports Arena in Los Angeles. In
2003 she was invited by composer Missa Johnouchi to record a CD “Kuge”, a Erhu and Pipa
concerto worked with Paris National Opera Theater Orchestra in Paris, France. Most recently
she worked with composer and music producer Jeremy Zuckerman to record Nickelodeon TV
series “Kung Fu Panda.” Legends of Awesomeness, and a TV show with Disney company “ Our
Flowing Dream”, etc.
     Ms. Liu has been invited by Caltech, Cal State Pomona college, and Cal State University of Los
Angeles. Claremont College, etc to introduce and showcase Chinese music and Chinese musical
instruments. Ms. Liu’s portrayal of her passion and dedication to music has earned her
worldwide recognition and acclamation.

    Her performance with OSU is sponsored by the Sino US Performing Arts Organization.

"Braveship Evening" Concert

Thanks to everyone who made this special concert possible. We were pleased the composer Matt Cook could join us for the festivities. Here are just a few photos from our "Braveship" week.

Composer Matt Cook with OSU Manager Rebekah Hughes and friends at the concert.

Matt Cook conducting "March of the Ants"

Carylee Zwang directing OSU and SUU Opus for Braveship

Final bows

Some of the percussion section before the concert

Some of the brass before the concert

Overview from balcony

Composer dinner with OSU Board and Guests

Rehearsal with Matt Cook directing

Matt and narrator Michael Bahr at rehearsal

 

A Review of OSU’s Flight on Dr. Matt Cook’s "Braveship"

By Stan Szczesny

On the night of October 13, 2022, the Orchestra of Southern Utah and SUU’s Opus performed Dr. Matt Cook’s Braveship at the Heritage Center in Cedar City. As a finale, the orchestra, along with soprano Ember Moat, also performed “Fly with Me,” another composition by Dr. Cook. Carylee Zwang conducted the orchestra, though Dr. Cook himself served as guest conductor for “March of the Ants,” which is the fourth movement of Braveship. Because Braveship is a multimedia experience that joins narrative and big-screen images to twelve movements of music, Michael Bahr performed the narrative passages between each movement.

Braveship uses music, imagery, and narrative to present a story. The music is the dominant force and feature of the presentation. The style of the music resembles orchestral movie soundtracks and twentieth-century programmatic tone-poems. The rhythms, textures and melodies are reminiscent of Prokofiev, Copland, Bernstein, Holst, and John Williams, especially the latter two. The emotions evoked by the music are by turns mysterious, whimsical, sentimental, and nostalgic for childhood fantasy. The movements as a whole are something of a mixed bag. Some, like “March of the Ants” “New World Landing,” and “Necklace of Memory” contain the sort of catchy, robust, simple melodies and rhythms that give one a sense of wonder and story. Other movements, like “Wings of Centaurs” and “Saber-Toothed Panther” feel musically busier and push the limits of complexity allowed for in practical instrumentation. The musicians in OSU did a fantastic job navigating the score, Opus enriched the sound with dramatic vocalise, and Maestro Zwang masterfully conducted with expression, confidence, and precision, but the score does not always evoke the emotional complexity and nuance one expects from great orchestral music, the latter movements do not variate sufficiently in style to provide relief from repetition, and the full composition lacks unifying thematic devices, such as leitmotif, and does not build any sense of direction or momentum from one piece to another, relying instead on the narrative and imagery to bridge the pieces together and to provide a sense of story. Overall, though it lacks classic simplicity and discipline, much of the music is of professional quality but might function better in standalone pieces.

The big-screen imagery for the presentation depicts a steampunk dirigible traveling through exotic landscapes among fantastic creatures. The humans are mostly impressionistic, but the creatures are finely characterized. In the age of CGI and IMAX, viewing stills is a bit quaint, but the live music assists the imagination, easing the burden of suspending disbelief. Besides, requiring audiences to participate more in imaginative work is hardly a vice and is often a welcome exercise.

As for the narrative, Dr. Cook excels in description and world-building. His narration recalls the wonder one feels as a child when viewing fantasy spectacles in the best adventure movies. As Braveship took flight, I felt grateful for the nostalgic feelings raised by the narrative. Michael Barr did a fine job inflecting, projecting, and enunciating each passage, so that I felt like a child listening to an enthusiastically read bedtime story. But as the performance continued, the narrative weaknesses became more apparent. Each interlude presented a disconnected succession of new exotic worlds and creatures, but attempts to impart meaningful motives, themes, choices, and development to the three main characters, Azra, Finn, and Helene, fell flat. There simply wasn’t enough time to develop complex narrative structures in the confines of a short concert, and the most interesting conflict—Helene’s desire to find her parents—remains unresolved as the narrative ends. The result is that the narrative sometimes feels like a distraction from the good music rather than an enhancement of the experience.

The concert ended with “Fly with Me,” a stand alone song by Dr. Cook. The music was simpler, and the orchestra handled it very well. The lyrics were a thematic fit with Braveship, making the piece a fine conclusion to the evening. The solo soprano, Ember Moat, sang competently with great intonation. The vocal and emotional range of the piece was technically difficult, but Ms. Moat made very good use of the opportunity to confidently perform for a large, sophisticated audience of musicians and concert patrons, and she is clearly a promising musician.

In conclusion, OSU, Opus, Dr. Cook, Ember Moat, and Michael Barr delivered a very good performance for the premiere of Braveship. The quality of the complete composition is uneven, but much of the music and imagery is sufficient to provide a pleasant evening at the concert hall. The narrative, at least the parts of it provided in the context of this orchestral presentation, needs work as a story, but was serviceable in evoking a sense of nostalgic wonder, and that is, I presume, Dr. Cook’s primary aim. I, for one, welcome every opportunity to return to the pleasant dreams and fantasies of childhood.

"Braveship" Sails into Cedar City for Discovery Children's Jubilee

Michael Bahr narrated "Braveship" 

Come and see the full Braveship Thursday, Oct. 13, at 7:30 p.m. at the Heritage Theatre

 

THANKS to everyone who made the Oct. 8 

Discovery Children's Jubilee a success: