Return to flip book view

EMERGING VOICESThe Oakland Civic Orchestra presentsFebruary 27, 2022 at 4:00 pmFirst Presbyterian Church of Oakland

emerging voicesPLEASE SILENCE ALL CELL PHONES AND OTHER ELECTRONIC DEVICES BEFORE THE CONCERT BEGINS.THANK YOU!Serenade for Strings, Op. 20Edward Elgar (1857-1934)Allegro piacevoleLarghettoAllegrettoSinfonia for String Orchestra, Op. 110 after String Quartet No. 8 Dmitri Shostakovich (1906-1975)Arranged and edited by Lucas DrewLargo - Allegro Molto - Allegretto - Largo - Largo(performed without a pause)RhosymedreRalph Vaughan Williams (1872-1958)Burlesk from A Zephyr in Gemini, Serenade for Two Cellos and Orchestra (World Premiere)Niko Umar DurrEamon Riley and Milo Klise, VioloncellliMartha Stoddard, Artistic Director and ConductorChristine Brandes, Associate Conductor

Today’s concert is brought to you by the Oakland Civic Orchestra Association and the Oakland Parks and Recreation Department and is performed by members of the Oakland Civic Orchestra. The Oakland Civic Orchestra was founded in 1992 and is a volunteer community orchestra bringing together musicians of all ages and backgrounds to share in the joy and magic of music-making. For more information about joining the orchestra or about our current season, please visit our website at: https://www.oaklandcivicorchestra.com.You can also nd concert information and current news about the orchestra on Facebook. Search for the Oakland Civic Orchestra and “like” us today!VIOLIN 1Christina Owens, ConcertmasterPriyanka Altman, Asst. Principal Margaret WuNiko Umar DurrHilda LiHelen TamVIOLIN 2 Gar Wei Lee, PrincipalPhillip Trujillo Paula WhiteLynn LaJeremy MarleyTram Le-NguyenVIOLAThomas Chow, PrincipalSara RuschéAnne NesbetDorothy LeeVIOLONCELLOVirgil Rhodius, Principal Diane Louie, Asst. PrincipalBryce MendelsohnChristopher KarachaleHeidi WilliamsonJohn SchroderCONTRABASSCarol DeArment, PrincipalSandy SchniewindPIANOJanet OhPERCUSSIONTim EricksonMEMBERS OF THE OAKLAND CIVIC ORCHESTRAmusicians

Looking back through the 24 concert seasons of my tenure as Artistic Director of the Oakland Civic Orchestra, I can recall many powerful experiences; enormous chal-lenges and great successes. Yet I know of nothing that compares with this experience of our return to live music-making this season. It is our life blood and I am humbled to be standing before the musicians and all of you again today.As I reect on all it takes to keep us together, I nd myself once again moved to tears. For two years we have worked tirelessly through many challenges of the pandemic. In January, 2022 we aspired to reunite the full orchestra, only to be stopped in our tracks by Omicron. We also moved to our new venue in anticipation of the reunion of the full orchestra, which requires more rehearsal space for our growing numbers. We continue to strive to bring our musical voices together and to rebuild the sense of community that is so vital to every arts organization, but there are still many unknowns. We are honored to share our work with you, our audience, and are deeply grateful for your interest and support as we navigate in new territory. We also want to express our gratitude to the sta and community at First Presbyterian Church of Oak-land for their warm welcome and generosity to all of us. In December our Composer-in-Residence, Niko Umar Durr, presented me with a substantial work for the orchestra for our Emerging Artists concert. One week later I asked them to reorchestrate the Burlesk movement, and in January they presented me with what we hear today. This “covid-friendly” version of A Zephyr in Gemini, Serenade for Two Cellos and Orchestra using strings, piano and tambourine is actually a preview of a masterful composition which we will present in May in its entirety. Our guest from the podium

artists, two brilliant young cellists, have graciously accepted this necessary change in plans, and we look forward to bringing them back for the full premiere in May. Please come back and join us for that reunion on May 15. Today’s program oers a selection of profoundly beautiful, exciting and stirring music. We begin with the Serenade for Strings, Opus 20 (1892) by Edward Elgar which is a staple of the string orchestra repertory, and is one of the composers’ most popular works. It is consists of three movements, Allegretto piacevole, Larghetto, and Allegret-to, the rst two of which may have been adapted from his Three Sketches for String Orchestra of 1888 (originally titled Spring Song and Elegy). In Elgar’s own emergence as a composer, it marked a new level of achievement. It should be noted that success as a composer did not come easily to Elgar. As a Catholic in a largely Protestant environ-ment, he had trouble breaking into the musical establishment; it was a slow, arduous path to recognition in the British musical society. Shortly following the completion of the Serenade he married Alice Roberts, who factored largely in his later success through her faith and belief in his abilities. This Serenade is relatively short, just over 12 minutes long, with a return to the rst movement’s opening theme at the end of the last movement. This extension is likely to have been modeled after the Serenades of both Tchaikovsky (1880) and Dvorak (1875), which were published a few years prior. Elgar proclaimed his Serenade for Strings his fa-vorite work and programmed it frequently in concerts. Interestingly, in 1933 the Lon-don Philharmonic released a recording conducted by Elgar which revealed a disregard for his own tempo indications. This easily could have shaped interpretive decisions of future performances and recordings.Elgar conducts Elgar - Serenade for Strings, Op. 20For further reading: SIR EDWARD ELGAR A Short BiographyMore about this Serenade The Sinfonia, Opus 110 by Dmitri Shostakovich, adapted by Lucas Drew from the String Quartet No. 8, is a riveting, expressive, profound — and somewhat terrifying — work of art. Shostakovich wrote it in just three days during a visit to Dresden in 1960 while he was intending to work on another commission. Perhaps metaphorically, we encounter the emergence of a hidden truth within the context of the ocial dedica-tion In Memory of the Victims of Fascism and War, which followed closely on the heels of his succumbing to political pressure to join the Communist party. Like much of the research on Shostakovich, this has been the subject of vast speculation, opposing viewpoints and dubious interpretations for decades. What is not in question is the powerful emotional content, the frequent repetition of the anagram motif after his initials, D-Eb-C-B (in German notation: DSCH), numerous other musical quotations and the implication of a sense of oppression he personally felt. It is also telling that he wrote to his friend:from the podium 2

I’ve [just nished] an ideologically decient quartet that nobody needs. I reected that when I die it’s not likely any-one will write a quartet dedicated to my memory. So I decided to write it myself. You could even write on the cover [of this string quartet]: ‘Dedicated to the memory of the composer of this quartet.’ The work consists of ve short movements played consecutively without a break. The opening motif appears frequently, rst as ponderous half notes in the opening Largo, then as quick eighths in the Allegretto, and subsequently reappear in each movement. We also hear references to the Latin Dies Irae (“Day of wrath” from the Requiem Mass). The familiar (to some) Russian prison song, Tormented by Grievous Bondage, appears in the fourth movement. Замучен тяжелой неволей Russian Choir 1939Shostakovich also quotes himself liberally. This sinfonia includes references to his Piano Trio No. 2, the rst Cello Concerto and the rst and eighth symphonies. That same fourth movement (with the prison song) also refers to the aria “Seryozha, my love” from his Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District. Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District, Op. 29, Act 2 Scene 5: “Sergéy, Seryozha!” (Katerina,...Shostakovich gives haunting solo passages to the rst violin and the cello, with the Dies Irae hovering, and an insistent and furious knocking rhythm framing state-ments of motifs fashioned after the original DSCH anagram. The eect is chilling. In a compelling article, Hamilton College professor Peter J. Rabinowitz oers a striking par-allel, suggesting a ghost reference to Richard Strauss’ equally terrifying masterpiece for strings, Metamorphosen, which was composed near the end of the second world war. For further reading:(PDF) The Rhetoric of Reference: or, Shostakovich’s Ghost Quartet| Peter J. Rabino-qitz - Academia.eduRobert Greenberg, a popular local historian and speaker oers another excellent read about Shostakovich, his entwined history with the Soviet Union, and the String Quartet No. 8.Greenberg on Shostakovich.Howard Posner’s program notes on this piece for the LA Philharmonic at the Holly-wood Bowl.Vaughan Williams’ setting of Rhosymedre oers a little respite from the severity and angst of Shostakovich. In a gentle setting for strings, John David Edwards’ hymn tune, rst heard in the rich voice of the viola, is deftly embellished with orid obliga-to by the violins, before they take it up in a brighter higher octave. Cellos and basses from the podium 3

provide a steady harmonic and rhythmic bass and deep resonance. The original Welsh hymn tune of 1840 can be found set to many dierent texts and features prominently in Anglican hymnal collections. One such hymn text excerpt speaks to our purpose today in showcasing the work of our Emerging Artists. Bless thou all parents, guarding well, with constant love as sentinel, the homes in which thy people dwell…Our children bless in every place,that they may all …grow in grace… In all our hearts such love increase, that every home, by this releasemay be the dwelling place of peace. If you are an Anglophile, you might have heard this piece before: it was played at Princess Diana’s funeral, and at both the weddings of Prince William and Prince Harry.In Burlesk, our resident composer Niko Umar Durr makes no secret of a fascination and sense of kinship to Shostakovich. The music is also compact, with driving momen-tum, rich in melody with a wry twist of dissonance which is manipulated eortlessly. It is equal parts humorous, tender and wrenching, and crafted for maximum eect in a short amount of time. Niko’s deep knowledge of strings and playful sense of melody drive this piece to a powerful conclusion, but not before a tender pause to show hom-age to what has come before, in this case a loving tribute to grandparents, embedded as an anagram toward the end of the work. Sum total, what emerges is a condent, compelling composition, and a huge leap forward for the composer.– Martha Stoddard and Tim Ericksonfrom the podium 4

our guest performersMilo Klise is a cellist from Berkeley, CA. He currently is a member of the San Francisco Symphony Youth Orchestra and a piano trio. Previously, Milo was assistant principal cellist in the Oakland Youth Symphony Orchestra for two seasons. For the past three summers, he was a member of the Sphinx Performance Academy at both The Juilliard School and Curtis Institute of Music, twice. He toured China and Canada with his orchestra and string ensem-ble. Milo has performed in Master Classes with Peter Wiley, Astrid Schween, Bonnie Hampton, Karlos Rodrigez, Thomas Mesa, as well as The Dover Quartet, The Tele-graph Quartet, The Alexander String Quartet, The Catalyst Quartet and others. He was selected to play in the Junior Bach Festival four times, was chosen for the SF Bay Area Youth Honors Orchestra and invited to the Arnosen Cello Fes-tival. His esteemed teachers are Cathy Allen Aird, Sebastien Gringas, Eugene Sor, Jill Brindel and David Goldblatt. He proudly attended The Crowden School where his love of chamber music was ignited.Eamon Riley is an 18-year-old cellist and graduate of the Crowden School from Berkeley, California studying with Sergei Riabtchenko. He has won or placed in several solo competitions. In November 2018 he performed the Saint-Saëns Cello Concerto in A minor with the Oakland Symphony Youth Orchestra (OSYO) as rst prize winner of the concerto competition; he also performed at Weill Hall at Carnegie Hall as a rst-prize winner of the American Protégé International Music Competition, and was second-prize winner at the DVC/HNU Young Artists String Competition. In addition, he has soloed in the Junior Bach Festival. Eamon also enjoys chamber music, and was a semi-nalist for two years in the Galante Prize Competition at SF State. In January 2019 year he performed in the world premiere of Lemuria, a piece by composer Clarice Assad for the Left Coast Chamber Ensemble. He is currently a member of the San Francisco Youth Orchestra. Eamon also has performed with numerous chamber groups working with many musicians such as: Heghine Boloyan, Eugene Chukhlov, Bonnie Hampton, Robert Howard, Je Ladeur, Pei-Ling Lin, Joseph Maile, Tanya Tomkins, and Eric Zivian. As a soloist Eamon has worked with Tanya Anisimova, Igor Gavrish, Bonnie Hampton, and Tanya Tomkins as well as with his primary teacher Sergei Riabtchenko.

Interested in becoming a member of the orchestra? Contact us through our website, see link below. Check out our websitePlease visit the Oakland Civic Orchestra’s website for the latest news on upcoming concerts and projects. You can also nd links to videos from our previous concerts and watch us in our very own documentary!https://www.oaklandcivicorchestra.comour composer-in-residenceNiko Umar Durr (b. 1995) is a composer-violinist based in the East SF Bay Area. Their rst violin lessons began at age 6, and an almost rabid desire for composition followed not long after lead to formal lessons at age 10 with local composer and pianist Molly Axtmann, in conjunction with an education at The Crowden School. Niko has had work performed by Left Coast Chamber Ensemble as well as various faculty and students associated with The Crowden School and Oakland School for the Arts. Niko was one of the inaugural students for the John Adams Young Composers Program at Crowden’s Community Music Center, through which they studied under Martha Stoddard as well as John Adams himself. During this time, Niko was also director of music for Harmonikos, a kind of composer/performer’s forum organized by fellow Crowden alumni. In 2021, Oakland Civic Orchestra announced Niko as Composer-in-Residence. Niko has performed with Young People’s Symphony Orchestra (YPSO) in Berkeley, Bay Area Rainbow Symphony (BARS) in San Francisco, and Berklee Contemporary Symphony Orchestra (BCSO) at Berklee College of Music in Boston MA, in addition to various one-o chamber ensembles or bands for various events as a musician for hire.

Martha Stoddard has held the position of Artistic Director of the Oakland Civic Orchestra since 1997. With her work cen-tered in the heart of the Bay Area, she is also the conductor of the Piedmont Chamber Orchestra, and is serving as Guest Music Director for the Community Women’s Orchestra. She will appear in concert in April as a nalist for the Conduc-tor position with the Holy Names University Community Orchestra, and is a longtime Associate Conductor for the San Francisco Composers’ Chamber Orchestra in San Francisco. She regularly performs on ute with the Handel Opera Project and Opus Oakland. Stoddard has repeatedly been named semi-nalist and nalist in recent American Prize competitions, both as conductor and composer, and is a four-time recipient of the AscapPlus Awards in composition. She holds music degrees from Humboldt State University and San Francisco State University and also studied conducting in courses around the USA, in Europe and in Russia. A dedicated educator, in recent years she also served as the rst Resident Conductor for Enrich-ing Lives through Music in San Rafael, and held the position of Program Director for the John Adams Young Composers Program at the Crowden Music Center. Ms. Stoddard held the position of Director of Instrumental Music at Lick-Wilmerding High School from 1991-2021, where she also served a six-year term as Chair of the Performing Arts Department. Ms. Stoddard’s music has been performed by the Friction Quartet, Sierra Ensemble, Avenue Winds, San Francisco Choral Artists, San Francisco Composers’ Chamber Orchestra, schwungvoll!, Oakland Civic Orchestra, Womensing, Community Women’s Orchestra, on the Bakerseld Symphony New Directions Series, Trinity Chamber Concert Series, the New Music Forum Festival of Contemporary Music, and in London, UK. Past commissions have come from the Left Coast Chamber Ensemble, Sierra Ensemble, Santa Rosa Repertory Youth Orchestra, Community Women’s Orchestra, John Bilotta, the Octangle Woodwind Octet and most recently from Lick-Wilmerding High School, for whom she was invited to compose a commencement piece for future gener-ations of graduates. Notable classical musical inuences include J.S. Bach, Shostakovich and Igor Stravinsky. She also nds great inspiration in the music of Freddie Hubbard and Charles Mingus.Ms. Stoddard is published by Tetractys in London, UK and formerly by Shadow Tree Music Publishing, and appears on numerous recordings as utist and conductor. She loves the outdoors and enjoys swimming, hiking and cycling and is an avid tennis player who enjoys competitive league play throughout the Bay Area.Associate Conductor Christine Brandes has long been held in high esteem as a professional singer of concert and operatic repertoire, she has increasingly felt drawn to the podium. Through her position as head of the Voice and Opera area at SF State University, she has conducted fully staged productions of Handel, Strauss, Mozart and Menotti. Her rst professional engagement was a production of Rameau’s Achante et Céphise (Sympathy) with Victory Hall Opera in Charlottesville, Virginia, to which she returned in the Fall of 2019 for Haydn’s Armide. Ms. Brandes made her professional west coast debut in 2019 conducting Gluck’s Orfeo and Euridice for West Edge Opera and will return in July of 2022 to conduct Julius Caesar. A noted specialist in baroque performance practice, she is the director of the University Baroque Ensemble at UC Berkeley. To read more about Ms. Brandes please visit: christine-brandesabout our conductors

new oco merchandise!Now available - OCO Logo Merchandise at Redbubble! Enjoy choosing from a variety of items with the OCO Logo emblazened in black or white and donate to OCO at the same time! 20% of the price of each item goes to OCO. The link to the store is on ourwebsite at www.oaklandcivicorchestra.com or visit TheOCO-store directly at Redbubble:TheOCOstore

program notes 1Niko Umar Durr • Burlesk from Zephyr in Gemini, Serenade for Two Cellos and OrchestraWhen Martha Stoddard and I were rst discussing my residency with Oakland Civic Orchestra, back in early 2020, she suggested I write two new pieces to be premiered in the then-upcoming season. First, a fanfare for brass (Merritt, which was performed at our season opener this past year). Then, a concerto for 2 cellos and orchestra, to be co-commissioned and premiered by fellow Crowden School alums Eamon Riley and Milo Klise. Needless to say, nature had other plans, as evidenced by the events of the past few years (as of writing in early 2022). Despite this unexpected deadline extension as well as a sudden inux of resources and support, nding any motivation to compose was dicult. However, I slowly came up with sketches in the interim, waiting for word from Martha whether we could meet and rehearse again.As fate would have it, my grandmother passed away in June of 2021, just a few days shy of her 79th birthday. Margrit Seidl Umar, along with my grandfather Rachmat Matt Umar (who passed in 2009), were near-constant presences in early life of my cousins, my brother, and myself, and a good amount of us are lucky to have core memories associated with both of them. In my case, every other musical path that I’ve taken could more than likely be traced back to my time being babysat by my grandparents. I would thumb through their CD and tape collections and listen to all dierent kinds of music; varying from compilations of classical music to Best of Billy Idol to their wedding song, Elvis Presley’s Can’t Help Falling In Love on their state of the art combination cassette tape/6 CD stereo system, to whatever music my grandfather would pirate o various early 2000’s internet download sites and either burn onto CD or play directly o his hi-tech Windows 98-running desktop. I knew at once that the piece needed to be about transition. Not just that of my grandparents from Here to There, but that of my soloists as they are both upperclassmen in high school about to transition into college life. I strongly felt that this Serenade needed to be less solemn in tone overall. This is in no small part because 2022 would have been their 60th year married together, and, in accordance with our concert title, all signs point to them being reunited again just in time, wherever they are. (I didn’t come to this realization until their actual anniversary which, as fate would have it, was this past February 14).The Umar family held a memorial in July, following Margrit’s passing. The service itself took place in Elk Grove, and afterward some of us went to Lake Tahoe to hold a mini-reunion of sorts. The beach we settled at was somewhere near Zephyr Cove, and I vaguely remember discussing astrology with some of my cousins, coming to the realization that Margrit and Rachmat’s birthdays placed them both in Gemini. It’s believed that people who fall under this sign

program notes 2are the most romantically and personally compatible with other Geminis. Meditating on this, it only made sense that not only the title be Zephyr in Gemini, but that this would be the subject for the double concerto that I was commissioned.In preparation for this Serenade, I’ve utilized various note-naming and pitch classication methods to create small melodic motifs that I could use to create a solid harmonic foundation. First, I took the last 2 digits of my grandparents’ birth years (39 & 42), combined them, and turned it into a 4-note motif that begins and ends this multi-movement work. Then, I took both of their rst names (Rachmat & Margrit) and, using a combination of solfège & German note names, turned them each into their own 7-note motifs. Cello 1 always plays Margrit’s motif, and Cello 2 always plays Rachmat’s motif, but neither cellist plays the other’s motif. This is despite sharing most of the other melodic material and even switching lines at several points throughout the work.Several events are also suggested throughout the work, implying a narrative. In this way one could consider it a suite to a hypothetical opera.The piece is divided into 3 movements: Prelude, Ballade, and BurleskBurlesk is the Finale of the entire work, which is heavily inspired by the music my grandmother would listen to while cooking or otherwise stubbornly doing housework against the advice of practically everybody around her. This could be anything from Bavarian Polka to Klezmer to ABBA, it would be blasting full volume on her headphones bleeding out for anyone within an arm’s length to hear. The movement is relentless, interrupted only by a restatement of a theme played in the very rst movement of the piece, followed by an ecstatic coda.– Niko Umar Durr

emerging voices rehearsals

Special thanks to Carol DeArment for the wonderful and ongoing documentation of our gatherings!

PLEASE JOIN US! MAY 15 REUNION Brahms: Academic Festival Overture Umar Durr: A Zephyr in Gemini, Serenade for Two Cellos and Orchestra (Full Orchestra Premiere) Milo Klise and Eamon Riley, Violoncelli Beethoven: Symphony No. 7SAVE THE DATE! OCO 2021-2022 SEASONCheck out the OCO website for season updates, future performances and more information on upcoming YouTube video uploads including selections from today’s concert event!www.oaklandcivicorchestra.com

donate!The Oakland Civic Orchestra is excited to announce the Oakland Civic Orchestra Association (OCOA), our newly formed nonprot public benet corporation. OCOA is now able to accept tax de-ductible donations for the benet of the orchestra. OCOA will support operational needs such as sheet music, instrument rentals, licensing fees and allow the orchestra to expand special projects such as commissioning original compositions. We would greatly appreciate your help to make sure the orchestra not only survives the current pandemic but grows in its service to a community that needs music more than ever.If you have the PayPal app on your mobile device please scan the QR Code below to donate directly or check out our website Support page at:https://www.oaklandcivicorchestra.com/support.htmlWe also gladly accept checks and they can be made payable to:Oakland Civic Orchestra AssociationPlease mail to:OCOA – c/o Daniel Bao1106 Park Avenue, #5Alameda, CA 94501Thanks for your support of OCO!

thank you!OCOA BoardCarol DeArmentTim EricksonWendy ShirakiRoger RaphaelMargaret WuSarah KliseKate LauerJereld WingStudio One Art CenterFirst Presbyterian Church of Oakland and church sta: Chris Weber Victor Carrillo Nina HernandezTitle VI COMPLIANCE AGAINST DISCRIMINATION 43CFR 17.6(B) Federal and City of Oakland regulations strictly prohibit unlawful discrimination on the bases of race, color, gender, national origin, age, sexual orientation or AIDS and ARC. Any person who believes he or she has been discriminated against in any program, activity or facility operated by the City of Oakland Oce of Parks and Recreation should write to the Director of Parks and Recreation at 1520 Lakeside Drive, Oakland, CA 94612-4598, or call (510) 238-3092. INCLUSIVE STATEMENT: e City of Oakland Oce of Parks and Recreation (OPR) is fully committed to compliance with provisions of the Americans with Disabilities Act. Please direct all inquiries concerning program and disability accommodations to the OPR Inclusive Recreation Coordinator at (510) 615-5755 or smeans@oaklandnet.com. TDD callers please dial (510) 615-5883.ACKNOWLEDGMENTSAnonymousPriyanka AltmanDaniel BaoNancy BushThomas ChowCarol DeArmentWilliam FinzerGeorge GaeblerNancy GeimerNina HwangChristopher KarachaleDorothy LeeNellie LeeMalinda LennihanPamela LouieLennis LyonLila McDonaldJudith NortonNancy RagleRoger RaphaelJohn SchroderWendy ShirakiNicola SkidmoreMartha StoddardAlex StrachanJudy StrachanHoward StrassnerDeborah WalkerA Big Thank You to our Generous Donors!To join our growing list of supporters please visit our OCO website or check out the PayPal page in this program.