OCO0224 Concert Program PDF FINA : simplebooklet.com

Welcome to our Symphonic Dance Party! Our program today is full of rich contrasts: lush harmony, intense rhythmic vitality and melodies that pull on our heart strings. We hope the concert today will move you, if not on the dance floor, in the soles of your shoes, and in your soul. From the dramatic depiction of the turbulent sea coast of the Isles of Scilly by Doreen Carwithen to the charming and picturesque dance settings of Joaquín Turina, we encoun-ter a variety of bold gestures, tender lyricism and pounding rhythms. In the centerpiece of our concert today, we present Sergei Rachmaninoff’s magnificent Symphonic Dances, Op. 45, his final symphonic work and a masterpiece of great emo-tional range and scope. It is an enormous musical endeavor for any orchestra to mount, and I am grateful for the fortitude and commitment of the members of the Oakland Civic Orchestra in embracing this challenging program. Thank you for sharing this concert with us, and supporting music in our community. – Martha Stoddard, Artistic Director and Principal ConductorFrom the Podium

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Martha Stoddard enjoys a multi-faceted musical career as conductor, composer and ﬂutist. She assumed the leadership of the Oakland Civic Orchestra in 1997 and began her 26th season as Music Director in the Fall of 2023. Praised for her clarity, generosity and vision, she has guided the orchestra through a major transformation and continues to strive for artistic excellence and growth. Originally trained as a ﬂutist, she is principal ﬂute for the Handel Opera Project and Piedmont Chamber Players, and performs chamber music locally and regionally. Ms. Stoddard also holds conducting positions with the Community Women’s Orchestra and the Piedmont Chamber Orchestra, and is a regular guest conductor of the Awesöme Or-chestra. Previous conducting posts include the Holy Names University Community Orches-tra, San Francisco Composers’ Chamber Orchestra, and Resident Conductor for Enriching Lives Through Music. Stoddard also served as Program Director for the John Adams Young Composers Program at the Crowden Music Center and was the Director of Instrumental Music at Lick-Wilmerding High School for 30 years, serving as Performing Arts Depart-ment Chair and JV Tennis coach for several years. In 2023, Ms. Stoddard was selected as a conducting fellow in professional workshops in Los Angeles and the Paciﬁc Northwest Conducting Institute.An award-winning composer and conductor, Ms. Stoddard is a strong advocate for living and women composers, having conducted many contemporary works, premieres and commissions. In 2019 she brought the Oakland Civic Orchestra into the ﬁnal round of the Ernst Bacon Prize for the Performance of American Music and in 2020 she was a ﬁnalist in the American Prize Competition for Conductors, Community Orchestra Division.Her popular orchestral work, A Little Trip to Outer Space, enjoyed its South Bay pre-miere by the San Jose Youth Symphony Concert Orchestra in June 2023. Other recent per-formances include premieres of Alexis Alrich, Jessica Krash, Monica Chew and Niko Umar Durr as well as works by Naomi Dodd, Germaine Tailleferre, Grace Williams, Florence Price and Louise Farrenc.About Our Conductor

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Program Notes 1Bishop Rock Overture (1952)Doreen Carwithen (1922-2003)Doreen Carwithen was born in Haddenham, Buckinghamshire, and after music lessons from her mother, entered the Royal Academy of Music in 1941. It was at this time that she met William Alwyn, who was her harmony teacher, and who she would later marry. In 1947 she took up an apprenticeship to study and compose ﬁlm music. Throughout her early career she produced several compositions but found it virtually impossible to ﬁnd a publisher willing to promote music written by a woman. She did, however, have success as a ﬁlm composer, writing scores for over 30 ﬁlms and gaining a reputation for her professionalism and speed under pressure.In 1961 Carwithen married William Alywn. She gave up composing and concentrated on supporting William’s music and acting as his assistant. After her husband’s death in 1985 she began to re-examine her own music but never completed another composition. Bishop Rock Overture was composed in 1952, and paints a scene of the Bishop Rock lighthouse. The miniscule island the lighthouse is built on is 1.5 miles shy of the westernmost point of England, 30 miles from the mainland. Bishop Rock has been described as “the last sight [an English] seafarer has of land, and, to the traveler from the New World, a symbol of welcome after the bleak waters of the Atlantic.”Cartwithen writes that Bishop Rock Overture is an “impression of the thoughts stimulated by the lighthouse, and depicts Bishop Rock in both a storm and calm.” The composition begins with a heroic outburst, initiated by french horns, launching us into adventure. Stormy weather comes and goes; the sea wavers between calm and treacherous. As you listen to this energetic and cinematic music, imagine the “ﬁlm” that must have been playing in Cartwithen’s head as she composed this overture. If you like this piece you should listen to:Frank Bridge - The SeaFelix Mendelssohn - Fingal’s Cave OvertureArnold Bax - Tintagel s qewhs

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Program Notes 2Danzas Fantásticas, Op. 22 (1920)Joaquín Turina (1882-1949)Joaquín Turina Perez was a Spanish composer and professor of composition at the Madrid Royal Conservatory. In his youth he studied in France where he became acquainted with, and deeply inspired by, the composers Claude Debussy and Maurice Ravel. The Danzas Fantásticas were originally written as a composition for solo piano, dedicated to his wife Obdulia Garzon. The work was orchestrated and premiered in 1920 at the Orquesta Filarmonica de Madrid. Each movement of Danzas Fantasticas is set in a dierent region of Spain and includes a descriptive quotation by José Mas from his novel La orgía:1. Exaltación, a jota from Aragon Parecía como si las ﬁguras de aquel cuadro incomparable se movieran dentro del cáliz de uno ﬂor. It seemed as though the ﬁgures in that incomparable picture were moving inside the calyx of a ﬂower.2. Ensueño, a Basque zortziko Las cuerdas de la guitarra, al sonar, eran como lamentos de un alma que no pudiera más con el peso de la amargura. The guitar’s strings sounded the lament of a soul helpless under the weight of bitterness.3. Orgía, an Andalusian farruca El perfume de las ﬂores se confundía con el olor de la manzanilla, y del fondo de las estrechas copas, llenas del vino incomparable, como un incienso, se elevaba la alegría. The perfume of the ﬂowers merged with the odor of manzanilla, and from the bottom of raised glasses, full of the incomparable wine, like an incense, rose joy.Turina’s composition is a fascinating tour of Spain through dance, colored by the ideals of French Impressionism. If you like this piece you should listen to:Manuel de Falla - The Three Cornered HatMaurice Ravel - Alborada Del GraciosoMaurice Ravel - Rapsodie Espagnole

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Program Notes 3Symphonic Dances, Op. 44 (1999)Sergei Rachmanino (1909-1958)In 1906, Sergei Rachmanino (1873-1943) left Russia due to the political turmoil of the First Russian Revolution. Like many of the great 19th and 20th century Russian composers, he spent the remainder of his life in exile. “Losing my country, I lost myself also,” wrote Rachmanino. “I left behind me my desire to compose.” Between 1918 and his death in 1943, he would write just six original works, Symphonic Dances being the composer’s last.“To the exile whose musical roots, traditions, and background have been annihilated, there remains no solace apart from the unbroken and unbreakable silence of his memories.” Rachmanino writes. Symphonic Dances is a musical photo album ﬁlled with the composer’s memories. References to music from across his career dot its pages, anxious to be discovered. The piece’s origins lie in a proposed collaboration with Michel Fokine, the Russian choreographer who had created The Firebird and Petrushka with Igor Stravinsky, and later immigrated to New York. Rachmanino envisioned a piece called Fantastic Dances with movements called Midday, Twilight, and Midnight, but Fokine died before the project could be realized. The early ballet sketches later became the three movement Symphonic Dances, premiered by the Philadelphia Orchestra and Eugene Ormandy, in January 1941.Two years prior to the work’s premier, Rachmanino and his wife had just settled into a peaceful home on Long Island, New York. The virtuoso pianist was preparing for a signiﬁcant tour and unexpectedly felt compelled to compose, which he had not done for several years. His Long Island home provided the perfect place to practice and compose in relative seclusion. Rachmanino worked feverishly, often devoting 14-hour days to piano practice and his eorts on Symphonic Dances. The ﬁrst movement bears the unusual tempo marking of “Non allegro.” A marking of Allegro indicates a brisk tempo, but here Rachmanino relies on the literal meaning of the term: cheerful, good-humored. The movement opens with a sinister march- Rachmanino’s brave and colorful instrumentation draws out rumbling growls and shimmering textures from the orchestra. The march gradually slows and a lyrical middle section begins, again featuring Rachmanino’s deep knowledge of orchestral color. A lover of each instrument’s particular tone qualities, he decided to feature the alto saxophone, rarely utilized in the orchestra. He consulted composer and Broadway arranger Robert Russell Bennett to ﬁgure out which saxophone he should use and how to incorporate it into the orchestration. (Rachmanino, his performers’ capabilities ever in mind, was also in the habit of having accomplished violinists check the practicality of the bowings for all his works. For the Symphonic Dances, Fritz Kreisler, one of history’s great violin virtuosos provided the bowings.)The return of the march music after the slow middle section is followed by a particularly poignant scene- an entirely new melody is introduced, lushly scored and magniﬁcently colorful. This “new” theme is actually the principal theme of Rachmanino’s ﬁrst symphony, the 1897 premier of which was a resounding

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Program Notes 4failure. The experience was so painful for Rachmanino that he was unable to compose for the following three years. Here he reclaims the old melody, using it to create the most emotionally gripping scene of this composition. The second movement is a waltz, overﬂowing with coloristic creativity. Rachmanino’s writing evokes ghostly and mysterious characters, with a push and pull of tempo that makes this dance quite unsettling. Brief scenes of carnival music make the wispy waltz all the more striking. The third and ﬁnal movement is another fast movement with a slow middle section. After a slow and searching introduction, a brisk dance sweeps us o our feet. This movement utilizes both Russian Orthodox chant and the “Dies irae”, the medieval chant for the dead. The “Dies irae” melody has been used by composers for centuries to evoke death, but Rachmanino juxtaposes it with his own “Alleluia” theme from his 1915 composition Vespers. In the end the “Alleluia” theme wins out, a ﬁtting end to Rachmanino’s last work. If you like this piece you should listen to:Igor Stravinsky - The Firebird Sergei Rachmanino - Symphony No. 2Sergei Rachmanino - Piano Concerto No. 3 —Andrew O’Donnells qewhs

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OCTOBER 13, 2024 FALL - SET 1 FEBRUARY 2, 2025 WINTER - SET 2 APRIL 27, 2025 SPRING - SET 3 JUNE 14, 2025 SUMMER OUTDOOR POPS Watch our website for complete program details! www.oaklandcivicorchestra.comSAVE THE DATES! OCO 2024-2025 SEASON Vaughan Williams: Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas TallisCadence Liu: Concerto for Flute and Orchestra Igor Stravinsky: Divertimento from Le Baiser de la fée (The Fairy’s Kiss)Yasushi Akutagawa: Music for Symphony OrchestraToday’s concert is brought to you by the Oakland Civic Orchestra Association, the Oakland Parks and Recre-ation Department and 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!MusiciansVIOLIN 1Christina Walton, Concertmaster Priyanka Altman, Asst Principal Amanda MokJen LiNiko Umar DurrLila McDonaldToshi TakeuchiAnne NesbetHelen TamPhillip TrujilloMaureen ParkNick NewtonJeremy MarleyVIOLIN 2 Margaret Wu, PrincipalGar Wei LeePaula WhiteMichael HagenNancy Ragle Amy GordonJules ChoSusan WhiteClaire HuangBaily HopkinsMilica GrahovacVIOLAThomas Chow, PrincipalSara Rusché, Asst PrincipalMatt Van PeltFelix Chow-KambitschElizabeth ProctorDorothy LeeVIOLONCELLOChris Brann, Principal Virgil Rhodius, Asst PrincipalDaniel StricklandDiego Martinez MendiolaJohn Schroder Diane LouieShannon BowmanHeidi WilliamsonKate LauerBryce MendelsohnCONTRABASSCarol DeArment, PrincipalSandy SchniewindNancy KasparAmanda FenclFLUTESusanne Rublein*Darin TidwellDeborah YatesPICCOLODeborah YatesOBOERoger Raphael*Flora EspinozaENGLISH HORNWendy ShirakiCLARINETDanielle Napoleon*Adam ThyrBASS CLARINETTom BerkelmanALTO SAXOPHONENina StrachanBASSOONAdam Williams*Elisabeth KelsonWill GormanCONTRABASSOONZev CooperFRENCH HORNAlex StepansAlex Strachan*Allyson WardDaniel BaoTRUMPETThomas DaSilva*Ron CohenRoger DainerTROMBONEMax Walker*Jereld WingBASS TROMBONEGeorge GaeblerTUBAFrancis UptonTIMPANI/PERCUSSIONNancy GeimerRyan Gliha*Sandra HuiAsaf ElbaumDiane LouieDebra TemplePIANODebra TempleHARPCarla Gee*Section Leader

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Please Support Us!The Oakland Civic Orchestra Association (OCOA) is the Oakland Civic Orchestra’s recently formed nonprot public benet corporation. OCOA is pleased to accept tax deductible donations for the benet of the orchestra. OCOA will support operational needs such as sheet music, venue and 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 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!

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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 most recent performances and previous concerts.https://www.oaklandcivicorchestra.comOakland Civic Orchestra AssociationBoard Members: Season 2023-2024Lila MacDonald, ChairCarol DeArment, SecretaryDaniel Bao, TreasurerChristopher Karachale, At LargePhillip Trujillo, At LargeWendy Shiraki, At LargeAlex Strachan, At LargeMargaret Wu, At LargeDeborah Yates, At LargeChristina Walton - LibrarianCarol DeArment - Videographer/Photographer Niko Umar Durr - Composer in Residence Andrew O’Donnell - Assistant Conductor, Program AnnotatorWendy Shiraki - Graphic designer/WebmasterAlex Stepans - Ticketing ManagerAlex Strachan - Assistant ConductorOCO StaAcknowledgementsTHANK YOU!Bret AndrewsCindy CollinsRyan GlihaChristopher KarachaleDorothy LeeOakland Parks and Recreation FoundationStudio One Art CenterFirst Presbyterian Church of Oakland

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Thank You Donors!Title 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.AnonymousPriyanka AltmanAmerican Online Giving FoundationBeryl Baker Daniel BaoHaley BashShannon BowmanChris BrandesBright FundsHanna BuechiNancy BushJuliana ChoThomas ChowRonald CohenCindy CollinsAllan CrossmanRaewyn CummingsRoger DainerThomas DaSilvaCarol DeArmentChristina de la CruzAyako EnglishTim EricksonStephen FeierabendWilliam FinzerGeorge GaeblerRobert GarciaLori GarveyNancy GeimerKeith GleasonAraxi GundelngerVeronica GunnBaily HopkinsShannon HoustonLinda HsiehRosemary JenckesChristopher KarachaleElisabeth KelsonAkiko KobayashiLynn LaKate LauerDorothy LeeNellie LeeMalinda LennihanRusty LevisWilliam LevisAdrian LewisPamela LouieLennis LyonJeremy MarleyDiego Martinez MendiolaBambi MenesLila McDonaldGayle MillingtonAlli MorenoDanielle NapoleonJudith NortonDana OwensMaureen ParkPaypal Giving FundElizabeth ProctorNancy RagleRoger RaphaelPatrick ReardonVirgil RhodiusCarol RothsteinRascal RoubosPatricia RubleinSusanne RubleinArno & Toshiko SchniewindJohn SchroderSchwab CharitableChristine ShaSteven SheeldWendy ShirakiNicola SkidmoreMartha StoddardAlex StrachanJudy StrachanNina StrachanHoward StrassnerMerna StrassnerDebra TempleFrancis UptonTimothy VollmerDeborah WalkerMax WalkerChristina WaltonPatricia WegnerAdam WilliamsAnna WuMargaret WuDeborah YatesJueun YiA 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.

OCO0224 Concert Program PDF FINA

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