Soundtrack of Our LIves

Preview at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XziZClbJaKw&feature=c4-overview&list=UU9nsAT3-XJ5YFB-_ENUw2BQ

 

Concert of Epic Movie Proportions

            The lights are coming up on the first concert of the Orchestra of Southern Utah’s Cinema Classics Season.  They have pulled out all the stopped for this event.  Thanks to the assistance of Concert Coordinator Jackie Jackson, Thursday, October 3, will unite the Orchestra with choirs In Jubilo, Master Singers, SUU Opus, Canyon View High School Madrigals and Cedar High School Madrigals in an evening of movie music masterpieces.  This epic performance, Soundtrack of Our Lives, takes place at the Heritage Center (105 N 100 E) at 7:30 pm.

            The concert is dedicated to the memory of Irene Goodwin Bishop, who played violin in countless Messiah performances and other orchestra concerts over her lifetime.

            In Jubilo sings “What a Wonderful World” and “Down in the Valley to Pray.”  “What a Wonderful World,” is featured in the Robin Williams’ movie, Good Morning Vietnam. “Down in the Valley to Pray” can be heard in Oh, Brother, Where Art Thou? In Jubilo is under the direction of Jackson; Teresa Redd is pianist.

            Master Singers performs "The Impossible Dream" from Man of La Mancha and “Sunrise, Sunset” from Fiddler on the Roof.  Dee Rich directs Master Singers; Danny Hansen acts as pianist.

            SUU Opus, conducted by Kevin Baker and accompanied by Jacob Lee, shares “Summertime” from Porgy and Bess and "Make Our Garden Grow" from Candide.

            Adrianne Tawa directs the Canyon View High School Madrigal Choir in “Somewhere Over The Rainbow” from The Wizard of Oz.  They then change themes to perform “Soul Bossa Nova” from Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery.

             The Cedar High School Madrigal Choir sings “Kiss the Girl” from Disney’s The Little Mermaid.  They then perform a vocal scene change with “Jai Ho!” from Slumdog Millionaire.

            The Orchestra of Southern Utah, conducted by Xun Sun, performs “Overture” to The Cowboys by legendary movie soundtrack composer John Williams.  The evening culminates with the combined choirs and Orchestra performance of two movements of Mozart’s “Requiem” as featured in the movie Amadeus.

            The Soundtrack of Our Lives concert is Thursday, October 3 at 7:30 pm.  Doors open at 6:45.  Lobby music is provided by Village Voices.  They perform (appropriately enough) soundtrack classics “As Time Goes By” from Casablanca, “Luck Be a Lady Tonight” from Guys and Dolls, “Moon River” from Breakfast at Tiffany’s, “You'll Never Walk Alone” from Carousel and “Hushabye Mountain” from Chitty Chitty Bang Bang.  

            The major sponsor for this event is the RAP (Recreation, Arts, and Parks) Fund through Cedar City Corporation.   RAP provides essential funding for trails, parks, recreation groups, and artistic events in Cedar City.

Tickets for Soundtrack of Our Lives may be purchased for $10 for adults, $5 for students (ages six and up), $30 for groups of six.    Tickets are available at the Cedar City Heritage Center Box Office by calling 435-865-2882 or online at http://www.heritagectr.org/.  Purchasing tickets in advance is recommended.  Season tickets are also available at the Box Office and Cedar Music Store for $40.  Children over the age of six are welcome at all the concerts with adult supervision.  OSU requests that babies and children less than six years old not attend as evening concerts are recorded.

For more information, please visit www.orchestraofsouthernutah.org or email osucedarcity@gmail.com.

17th Annual Fall Recital Series Starts Sept. 3

Miriam Wagstaff is the current Utah State Fiddle Champ in her age division and performs in the  Sept. 17 recital.

The Orchestra of Southern Utah invites you to the 17^th annual Fall Recital Series. Performances are every Tuesday in September, 7:30 p.m. at St. Jude’s Episcopal Church, 70 North 200 West in Cedar City. 

            The opening recital “From Baroque to Broadway”, on Tuesday, September 3, is directed by Jackie Jackson.  Broadway is brought to you by Jacob Phosander with music from Les Miserables and Parade.  Adam Lambert, Jackie Riddle Jackson and Teresa Redd perform Handel’s Gospel classic “Let the Bright Seraphim.”  Sadie Leavitt provides Pop with “Dream a Little Dream Medley.” Village Voices brings you Film Music (“Moon River”), Chorale (“When Allen-a-Dale went a Hunting”) and Big Band (“A Nightingale Sang In Berkeley Square”).  Cellist Deb Vradenburg provides the Classical element with “Sarabande” by LeClair; harpist Kendra Leavitt adds “Chanson La Nuit” by Carlos Salzedo; and Ashlee Rowland sings the Opera Aria “O Mio Babbino Caro” and music from Phantom of the Opera. 

            September 10 celebrates “All That Jazz,” an evening of jazz and cinema classics. Robert Gordon’s Jazz Ensemble starts off with movie music. The Southern Utah Quintet performs “Echoes of Harlem” by Duke Ellington, as well as “Love on the Rocks” and “Hello Again” by Neil Diamond.  Vocal group Common Ground shares Gershwin’s “Summertime”.  Haley Jean Dodgion highlights The Sound of Music. Violinist Sara and Ruth Ipson play “Schindler’s List Theme” by John Williams with Mary Anne Andersen.  David Bolsover and Adrianne Tawa perform “Notturno” by Grieg and the Allen Family presents a movie medley.

“Musical Stories” highlight September 17.  Common Ground performs “Always on My Mind,” “Land of the Navajo”, and “Nowhere Man.”    Southern Utah String Quintet plays music by Dvorak while Marin Colby and Mary Anne Andersen perform the finale of the César Franck’s romantic violin sonata.  Pianist Jack Vickers plays “Cuentos del Matador” by Rocherolle.  Champion fiddler Mariam Wagstaff performs a traditional Irish jig, and  a‘Texas Old-Time Fiddle Style” contest set.  Festival City Singers, vocalist Fred Dunnell, and pianist Teri Kenney complete the program.

            The recital series winds up with a musical whirl-wind trip “Around the World in 80 Minutes”.  “Fandango” by Michael McLean features violin duo Tori Calamity and Jessica Chamberlain with pianist Heather Carroll.    Debra Vradenburg and Linda Brimhall bring you music by Telemann.  Local composer Hal Campbell’s “Three Somewhats and an Almost” will be performed by LuAnne Brown, Colleen Dowse, Caroleen Lee, June Thorley, Carol Ann Nyman, Benjamin Lee, and the composer himself.  Halle and Jack Vickers join for “Russian Sailors’ Dance” by Reinhold.  Brown, Dowse, Thorley, Nyman and clarinetist Sarah Solberg perform Mozart’s “Quintet in A Major, K 581.  Ben Bradshaw, Mike Wallace and Virginia Stitt play “Bassoon Trio No. 2 in G minor” by Francois-Rene Gebauer.  The Reed Trio performs “Tango and Co” by Helga Warner-Buhlmann.

            A $5 donation for adults and $3 donation for students is appreciated; children over the age of six are welcome at all Orchestra events with adult supervision.  For more information, visit www.OrchestraofSouthernUtah.org ,  email osucedarcity@gmail.com, or contact Sara Penny at 586-2286.

Bringing the Orchestra into Area Homes through Baby Ears Project

OSU board members Allen Butt, Laura Lee, Laurel Dodgion, June Thorley, Xun Sun and Harold Shirley (far right) accept the Baby Ears sponsorship check from Dr. Robert Dowse (second from right).

Orchestra Project is Music to Baby’s Ears

            The Orchestra of Southern Utah’s “Baby Ears Project” at Valley View Medical Center continues, thanks to the sponsorship of Dr. Rob Dowse and Premier Pediatrics in Cedar City.

            The Baby Ears project was created to bring music to children at an early age, during those important years of cognitive development. “We love music in our home,” stated Cedar City mom Jennilyn Rock.    “It helps their creativity, confidence, and expression of self.”

            Research indicates that music, especially classical music, can affect the way an infant develops.  Music is one of the few activities that engage both the right and left hemispheres of the brain. It helps the brain more easily organize input.  It can reduce stress, decrease heart rate, and increase oxygen saturation in preterm infants.  Music also teaches children to how recognize emotion in sound and become of the emotions of those around them.

            Music in general also helps families as a whole. “My kids and I listen to all kinds from children's, to classical, to the Beatles, and much more. It has become a great way for us to come together as a family,” commented Rock.  “I look forward to taking them to more local concerts in the future and hope they will want to eventually participate.” 

The “Baby Ears Project” began in 2009.  Since the project’s birth, more than 3495 CDs have been presented to parents and their babies at Valley View Medical Center in Cedar City.  The orchestra musicians also want to encourage children to learn to play instruments.

The Orchestra of Southern Utah is pleased to provide Baby Ears CDs to the mothers at Valley View Medical Center and would like to thank Dr. Robert Dowse and Premier Pediatrics for their continued support of the Baby Ears Project.  For more information on the Baby Ears Project, please visit www.orchestraofsouthernutah.org.

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 (article by Laurel Dodgion, OSU Publicity Director)

Update on 2013-2014 Season

Cinema Classics  2013-2014 Concert Season

(Music in the Movies and with the Movies)

 

OSU Rehearsals start Thursday, Sept. 5 at Heritage Center

Concerts at the Heritage Center, 7:30  pm., 105 North 100 East, Cedar City, Utah  

Oct. 3, Soundtrack of Our Lives
Overture to the Cowboys by John Williams with full symphony orchestra plus choirs celebrating movie music.   (Master Singers, In Jubilo, school and/or SUU choirs, as well as full orchestra selection, Jackie Jackson coordinator)

Nov. 9,  "Legends Never Die"
Ride of the Valkyries by Wagner (200th birthday year)
Prelude from Lohengrin, Act 3 by Wagner
Percussion concerto written by Keith Bradshaw with Lynn Vartan as soloist
Adagio for Strings by Barber
Overture to Die Meistersinger by Wagner

Dec. 8 and 9, 73rd Messiah "Listen to My Heart"  Sunday, Dec. 8 and Monday, Dec. 9
Dress rehearsal Saturday, Dec. 7 at 9 a.m.

Rehearsals resume Thursday, Jan. 9

Feb. 15,  Jubilee "Where Dreams are Born"    Family Matinée
(portion of Flickers, vintage silent films with classical music)
with music at 2 p.m., followed by hands on art and science activities for all ages.

Feb. 20,   Flickers "To the Stars"   dress rehearsal Feb. 19
Flickers - Classical music set to vintage silent movies, one of Jerry Waddell’s newer products.
More details on his website at
http://www.flickersymphony.com/flickers.htm
A Night on Bald Mountain, Mussorgsky
Danse Macabre, Saint-Saens
Peer Gynt Suite No. 1, 1 through 4, Grieg
Finlandia, Sibelius
Firebird Suite: Infernal Dance and Finale, Stravinsky

April 17,  R. L. Halversen Young Artists:  "The Eyes of Youth"
Dress rehearsal April 16
3 to 4 soloists
Les Preludes by Liszt

17th Annual Recitals at St. Jude's Episcopal Church, 70 North 200 West, Cedar City, 7:30 p.m.

Sept. 3   "From Baroque to Broadway" under the direction of Jackie Jackson
Sept. 10  "All That Jazz" 
Sept. 17 "Musical Stories"
Sept. 24 "Around the World in 80 Minutes"
Community musicians and advanced students invited to perform.  To sign up contact Sara Penny Email at osucedarcity@gmail.com or
Phone 435-586-2286

Finale Concert and Reception

Thanks to all involved in making this a memorable season.  Great music, wonderful soloists, and dedicated musicians make the Orchestra of Southern Utah a valuable asset to our area.  The support team is incredible and we appreciate everyone involved from the Board and staff members to all the selfless volunteers.  Many thanks to Peter and Diane Pasternak for hosting the reception. 

OSU Conductor Xun Sun, Hillary Dalton, Kristen Nielson, Michael Wager, Rylee Dalton, and OSU President Harold Shirley prepare for the concert.

OSU Assistant Conductor Gerald Rheault and Guest Conductor Zheng Guo before the concert.

Mikael Thatcher provided lobby music before the concert.

Peter Pasternak prepares for a wonderful after concert reception.

Diane Pasternak gets ready for the hungry musicians, donors, and patrons.

A group from Beaver came to enjoy the concert.

Marci Staudte and Kim Montgomery were among many reception volunteers.  Thanks to all.

Jessi Kate and Madilynn Riley help  distribute reception ice cream treats.

Soloist Kristen Nielson with her sister Julie Davis after the concert.

Laurel Dodgion, Chelsea Gardner,  and some of our upcoming young musicians.

More photos courtesy of the Dalton family:

Southern Utah’s Own Tanglewood

By Bryce Christensen

A half century ago, the great American composer Aaron Copland recognized in Tanglewood and the music festival it hosts a critically important venue where “talented young musicians . . . gather.”  When such young musicians come together in such a setting, Copland believed, “their very presence . . . [can] act as a stimulus” to great music.  As the audience who gathered at the Heritage Center on April 18^th can attest, the Orchestra of Southern Utah’s Roy L. Halversen Young Artist Concert has developed into a Tanglewood-like opportunity for promising young musicians in this area.  Named for an outstanding teacher whose decades of selfless service inspired hundreds of aspiring young musicians at Southern Utah University and in the surrounding community, the Halversen Concert—like Tanglewood and its festival—gives rising young stars a chance to showcase and develop their talents.  Without question, the four young guest soloists and the young guest conductor who performed at this year’s Halversen concert created a potent stimulus to musical excellence.

During the evening’s first number—Franz Liszt’s Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2— the stimulus of young talent was most visible in on the conductor’s podium, where the twenty-two-year-old guest conductor Zheng Guo showed how remarkably well a young hand can wield the baton in eliciting a masterful performance of a difficult classical piece.  From the stirring opening trumpet notes to the kinetic conclusion of this richly-textured piece, Guo was in complete command, handling the quieter, reflective passages with tender sensitivity, but rendering Liszt’s kinetic eruptions with energy and passion.   Under Guo’s poised direction, OSU musicians melded their gifts in an irresistible interplay of winds, brass, strings, and percussion.  Particularly notable in this interplay were the memorable solos by trumpeter Adam Lambert, trombonist Michelle Lambert, clarinetist Sarah Solberg, and violinist LuAnne Brown—solos that stood out like shining gems embedded in an arabesque work of jewelry. Although not a soloist, OSU’s conductor and director Xun Sun did his part in this selection and in the evening’s final number by taking a seat in the violin section, as a hand that normally swings the baton skillfully applied a bowstring under the direction of a talented young guest.

For the second number, Summer by Vivaldi, Sun took his accustomed place on the conductor’s podium, where he again manifested the consummate musicianship that has now captivated Cedar City listeners for a decade.  But during this enchanting number, the limelight belonged not to Sun but to violinist Kristen Nielsen, one of four young soloists selected for this year’s Halversen’s Concert through competitive auditions.  Playing with the aplomb and self-possession of a seasoned virtuoso, Nielsen segued effortlessly from the languid opening notes of this Vivaldi masterpiece to the frenetic tempestuousness of the stormy later passages.  Though Nielsen unfolded much of her solo work against the broad backdrop of a tapestry spun out by the entire orchestra, she played some especially beautiful passages in tightly choreographed back-and-forth duets with her sister, Julie Davis, playing the cello.

In the concert’s third number the aria “Quando m’ en vo’” [“Musetta’s Waltz”] from Puccini’s La Bohème, the spotlight shifted to soprano Rylee Dalton.  From the moment she first opened her mouth, Dalton poured forth a stream of pure gold.  With impressive vocal gifts, Dalton made the famous aria luminous with the irrepressible desires of a beautiful and flirtatious woman, provoking the attention of all, but seeking the devotion of one.  Dalton displayed the marvelous richness of her voice to particularly good effect in the soaring conclusion of this number, as she effortlessly ascended her seemingly unbounded range.

The mood shifted markedly when cellist Michael Wager took over as soloist for the First Movement of Elgar’s Cello Concerto, a melancholy and brooding number.  With nuanced deftness of expression, Wager conveyed this dark composition’s deeply moving strain of pathos, a pathos born of Elgar’s deep distress over the carnage of World War I.  His performance poignantly complemented by the orchestra, Wager carried listeners from a subdued and reflective grief to a sense of mourning mounting to surprisingly majestic dignity.

The shadows of elegy gave way to the brilliance of celebration in Sibelius’ technically demanding Violin Concerto, as violinist Hillary Dalton took the stage as the last of the evening featured youth soloists.  Listeners could only marvel at the way Dalton performed the most daunting passages—passages requiring rapid movement through complex phrasings—not only with flawless technique but also with evident relish.  This was clearly a musician who positively enjoyed meeting musical challenges!   Though Dalton’s success in meeting such challenges was most obvious in the numerous feverishly dynamic sections of this number, her success was also evident in the more muted and pensive sections, sections Dalton rendered with liquid delicacy.

Though the parade of the Halversen soloists ended with the Intermission, the evening’s final number-- The Moldau by Smetana—reminded listeners that OSU need not bring in a young guest conductor from China to find a strikingly-gifted musician to take the podium whenever Master Sun wishes to employ his abilities in the violin section.  OSU Assistant Conductor Gerald Rheault indeed handled the baton for this last number with singular mastery, leading the orchestra in an artfully modulated performance of a many-hued musical evocation of the heart-stirring beauties of central Europe.  Named for a river that cuts through what was once Czechoslovakia, this Romantic treasure sparkles again and again as it transports listeners from Bavarian springs where the river originates, through valleys where it swells in volume and strength, and finally broadens into regal breadth on the plains near Prague.  Thanks to the interpretive deftness evinced by Rheault and the OSU musicians under his direction, listeners felt the natural growth of a brook augmented by tributaries, the turbulent cascades of a river fighting its way through a rocky gorge, the placid serenity of a mature river.  They also felt the echoes of human activities along the swelling river’s banks—the clamorous excitement of a hunt, the communal joy of a wedding, the proud glories of an aristocrat’s castle. 

As the emphatic last note of the Smetana number died away, listeners realized that another wonderful concert, another wonderful concert season, had ended.  But because of the way the Halversen concert—Southern Utah’s own little evocation of Tanglewood---fosters youthful talent, these listeners had every reason to hope that excellent music will continue to be a culturally enriching part of Cedar City for decades to come!

Concerto Previews for Thursday, April 18, 2013 Concert

Elgar Cello Concerto:  

Some were inquiring about the Elgar Cello Concerto at rehearsal and what it "meant."

During my interview with World Class Cellist Zuill Bailey a few months ago (on his new CD of the Elgar Concerto) he related to me the story behind this important concerto.

1.  First the entire concerto is a lamentation for all mankind following WWI.  Elgar saw no real hope for the future of mankind.  We hear this in the 1st movement as it relates sadness of humanity and in the middle of the movement, you can hear Elgar's remembrance of happier days in his childhood before tragedy (heard in the brass) strikes again and the movement ends in melancholy.

2.  Also 2 personal very tragic events occurred in his life as well.  First Elgar's mother passed away and then a few months later his sister (who he was extremely close to) passed away as well.

Thus Elgar was under a VERY "black cloud" when he wrote this cello concerto.

Ken Hedgecock, Producer of Classical Music Discoveries and Trombonist in OSU

To preview the concerti for the April 18 Concert:

Elgar: 

Jacqueline du Pre's version: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UUgdbqt2ON0

Yo-Yo Ma:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RM9DPfp7-Ck

Musetta's Waltz from La Boheme by Puccini

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yVQNVoc2_Og

Summer from The Seasons by Vivaldi
http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=g65oWFMSoK0

http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=F3OVQPjk7nE

Sibelius Violin Concerto

Third movement (Allegro ma non tanto) that starts at 25:30   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YsbrRAgv1b4

Previews for the Liszt and Smetana on earlier blog entries.