Music Lasts a Lifetime - Binghamton Community Orchestra

“Music Lasts a Lifetime”
Annual STMTA Concerto Competition Winners Concert
Featuring:
Emily Bartz, flute &
Amanda Schmitz, viola
Conducted by:
Dr. Jeffrey Jacobsen
Sunday, March 4, 2012 at 3:00 p.m.
West Middle School
West Middle Avenue
Binghamton, NY 13905
Spring Concert
Saturday, May 5th, 2012 at 7:00 p.m.
Sarah Jane Johnson Church
308 Main Street, Johnson City, NY
Music Program:
Hailstork - Intrada
Wagner - Siegfried Idyll
Moulds - Egloga
Kalinnikov - Symphony No. 1 in G minor
Look for us at
First Friday events, too!
For more information on the BCO, please visit:
BinghamtonCommunityOrchestra.org
BCO Angels
BCO Angels
(January 2011 to present)
(January 2011 to present)
Laura & Robert Crounse
Robin DeSantis
Doug
& Mary Diegert
Ron & Carol Miles
Mary A. Diegert
Barry & Joanne Peters
Paul & Alison Dura
John & Grace Roossien
Karl Frandke
Donald & Julia Gaster
Benefactors
Don & Sharon Gould
($300 -$499)
The Gregory Keeler Family
Jeff Barker & Carol Smith
Annette Krohn
Cecily O’Neil &
Alicia & Karl Kuehn
John Patterson
Kenneth & Laura Lattimore
Lee & Julian Shepherd
Harry & Betty Lincoln
Renee Yang
Lucy Loewenstein
Shelemyahu & Hanna
Brian, Marianne & Lauren
Zacks
Myers
Tamara Nist (In memory of
John & Valery Nist)
Patrons
Theresa O’Connell
($100-$299)
Richard & Ellen Petrisko
Lynn & Allyson Aylesworth
Nathan Raboy
David & Christy Banner Theodore & Patricia Ronsvalle
Norma Barsamian (In
John & Diane Runion
memory of John Hagopian)
John Ruth
Adrienne Bennett
Steven Shultz
Linda Best
John & Laura Solan
Robert & Shirley Best
Brian & Constance Sternberg
Gerald & Judith Cavanaugh John Titus & Cynthia Krendl
Gary & Mary Cole
Arthur & Ann Weissman
George & Margaret Yonemura
Major Contributors
($500 & over)
Sponsors
($50-$99)
Friends
(Up to $49)
George & Sally Akel
Bruce & Nanette Borton
Don Brister (In memory of
Leonard Levine)
Eric Donaldson
Ruth Fisher
Dana Gleason
Karen Goodman
Steven & Laura Hine
Joanne Kieffer
Herbert & Janet Landow
Hanna Toni Norton
Corrine O’Leary
Cayenna Ponchione
Lana Rouff
John & Laura Solan
Kent & Heather Struck
Marianne Wallenburg
Kathleen Williams
Anonymous (In memory
of L. Gay Stannard)
Kyle Brown
Norman & Dorthy Burns
Joni Cermak
George Cowburn
Greta Dodson
Emma Hall
Herbert B. Haake
Richard Heinrich
Susan Hesse
Gloria Larson
Dennis Leipold & Jane Shear
Joanne Maniago
Dr. & Mrs. Roger Ratchford
Leeland Roseboom
Conrad & Marilyn Ross
William & Rosemarie Snyder
Selma Spector
Stephen Stalker
Carl Stannard
Nina & Randy Stutzman
Myrna Webb
Allen & Nancy Ziebur
We need your support!
Please consider joining our list of BCO Angels by sending
in a contribution. Your contribution will enable the BCO
to continue providing interesting and innovative programming. If you wish to contribute, please complete the form
below and mail it along with your check. Every donation
is helpful and we sincerely appreciate your support!
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(tax deductible)
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Please make checks payable to:
Binghamton Community Orchestra
P.O. Box 1901, Binghamton, NY 13902
OR
You can even make your contribution ONLINE! Just visit:
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and Click the “Donate to the BCO” button
BCO Board of Directors
Laura Hine, President
Carol Smith, Secretary
David Banner, Vice-President
Mary Diegert, Treasurer
Jeffrey Jacobsen
Jonathan Lewis
Barry Peters
Joanne Peters
Nathan Raboy
Heather Roseboom
Peter Roseboom
Rebecca Sheriff
The BCO wishes to thank our volunteers who donate
their time and talent in service to the orchestra. We offer many
opportunities for volunteering. If you are interested in getting
involved with the BCO, please contact any board member or
orchestra member.
In addition to our Board of Directors, we offer thanks to
our volunteer leadership as listed below:
Advertising Committee
Concert Recording
Grant Writer
House Manager
Librarian
Program Committee
Publicity Chair
Reception Chairs
Stage Managers
Mary Diegert & Carol Smith
Harold Bartz & Betsy Bartz
Jeff Barker
Heather Roseboom
Emily Creo
Jonathan Lewis & Beth Lewis
Rebecca Sheriff
Amy Saeger & Kelsey Tombs
Peter Roseboom, John Ruth,
and Lynn Aylesworth
Thank you to the BCO Board of Directors, Binghamton
City School District, Donna Tarsia, Binghamton High School
& West Middle School Custodial Staff, Laura Hine, Joel
Smales, Melanie Valencia, Southern Tier Music Teachers Association, Holly Milano, Brenda Dawe, Nina Stutzman, Gail &
Katie Markstein.
Special thanks to Linda Best and Tamara Nist for their years
of service to the BCO’s Board of Directors. We appreciate all
of their time and effort on behalf of the orchestra!
The
Binghamton Community
Orchestra
is pleased welcome
Dr. Jeff Jacobsen as
our new Music Director.
We look forward to a long,
exciting, and fun-filled
collaboration with Dr. Jacobsen.
Welcome Jeff
David L. Banner
Registered Patent Agent
P.O. Box 8859
Endwell, NY 13762
Patent Searches, Patent Applications,
Patent Prosecution
Dear Audience:
Welcome to our annual STMTA Concerto Competition Winners Concert featuring Emily Bartz performing the Chaminade Concertino for
Flute and Amanda Schmitz performing the Bloch Suite Hebriaque for
Viola. Both soloists have been working with the orchestra on a regular
basis since January and I am sure you will be impressed with the great
talent these young musicians display and delighted with the way the
orchestra accompanies them during this performance. The concert will
open with Beethoven’s Egmont Overture and close with a series of Slavonic Dances by Dvořák.
We had a wonderful time at the Oakdale Mall last week, performing for
a gracious crowd which warmed our hearts with their enthusiastic applause. It was a great experience for the orchestra; exposed the shoppers to the Binghamton Community Orchestra; and helped to build the
awareness of this great ensemble in the eyes of the public. We look
forward to more outreach concerts in venues across the region.
Our final concert will be the first weekend of May and will feature:
Intrada by Adolphus Hailstork; Siegfried Idyll by Richard Wagner;
Égloga by R. A. Moulds (Premiere Performance); and the Symphony
No. 1 in G minor by Vassili Kalinnikov.
The Board of the Binghamton Community Orchestra has a number of
great initiatives working for next season and we have hopes of collaborating with a number of local arts groups to present combined works
featuring a wide range of musical experiences for our audience members. I am excited about the future for the BCO and look forward to
working with this incredible group of dedicated musicians.
As always, I am delighted you are here to enjoy this wonderful music
and this fantastic ensemble and look forward to many more experiences
with you and the orchestra!
Sincerely,
Jeff Jacobsen
Music Director
Dr. Jeffrey Jacobsen, Conductor
Overture to Egmont, Op. 84
Ludwig van Beethoven
(1770-1827)
Rhapsodie
Ernest Bloch
(from Suite Hébraïque for Viola and Orchestra)
(1880-1959)
Featuring: 2011 STMTA Winner Amanda Schmitz, viola
Concertino for Flute and Orchestra
Cécile Chaminade
(1857-1944)
Featuring: 2011 STMTA Winner Emily Bartz, flute
~intermission~
Guest Speaker
Slavonic Dances, Op. 46
I.
IV.
VII.
VIII.
Mr. Robin Linaberry
Antonín Dvorák
(1841-1904)
Furiant
Sousedská
Skočná
Furiant
Funding is provided, in part, by a project grant
from the United Cultural Fund, a program of the
Broome County Arts Council.
Our Conductor
Dr. Jeffrey Jacobsen
Dr. Jacobsen is a sought-after conductor and
clinician who has been invited to conduct orchestras at
national and international music festivals and camps. He
currently serves as Director of Orchestral Activities and
Opera at Mansfield University of Pennsylvania and has
recently been appointed as Music Director of the Binghamton (NY) Community Orchestra. He has conducted
numerous All-State and All-Region Honor Orchestras in the United States and
Canada as well as professional orchestras in Europe. Dr. Jacobsen served for five
seasons as the Music Director of the Orchestra of the Pines in Nacogdoches/
Lufkin, Texas, and Director of Orchestral Activities and Opera at Stephen F. Austin State University. He founded and served as Music Director of the Blue Valley
Chamber Orchestra, a regional orchestra in the Kansas City area. Jacobsen was
affiliated with the Youth Symphony of Kansas City, initially as the Music Director
of the Symphonette and later as Music Director of the Philharmonic East Orchestra. He taught in public schools in Overland Park, Kansas, Boulder, Colorado and
Williamsburg, Virginia.
Dr. Jacobsen's ensembles have performed at state music conventions, and
national and international music festivals. These same ensembles consistently
earned highest ratings at competitive festivals and, at several, Dr. Jacobsen was
named outstanding director. He received the Mary Taylor Award for Excellence
in Classroom Teaching at Boulder High School and was featured twice on the
KCNC-TV's "Teachers Who Make a Difference" series. Jacobsen was the Boulder
Valley School nominee for the Sallie Mae National Teachers Award, received the
Teacher Recognition Award from the University of Kansas, and was named the
Outstanding High School Orchestra Director for the Northeast District of the Kansas Music Educators Association.
Dr. Jacobsen received a Master of Science degree in music education
with a secondary emphasis in performance from the University of North Dakota
and a Doctorate of Music Education degree with a secondary emphasis in jazz
pedagogy from the University of Northern Colorado. Dr. Jacobsen was selected
for the American Symphony Orchestra League Donald Thulean conducting workshop with the Detroit Civic Orchestra. He was invited to the International Conducting Workshop in the Czech Republic and has taken post-doctoral studies in
conducting at Northwestern University, the Cleveland Institute of Music, and the
universities of Iowa, Illinois State and South Carolina. His instructors include
William LaRue Jones, Kirk Trevor, Mariusz Smolij, Kirk Muspratt, Tsung Yeh,
and Marvin Rabin.
As a professional musician, Dr. Jacobsen has served as principal bassist
of numerous ensembles, including the Tabor Opera Company (Denver) and the
Liberty Symphony Orchestra (Missouri). Jacobsen is currently Principal Bassist
of Millennium Orchestra and a recording artist for Naxos and ERM. He performed on a regular basis in the jazz clubs of Williamsburg, Kansas City and Denver, and along with other members of the ensemble, received a Grammy Award
nomination for the jazz recording "Hot IV."
Emily Bartz
Emily Bartz is a home-schooled high school junior
and has been playing flute for six years. She has been an
active member of the Binghamton Youth Symphony Senior
Orchestra for three and a half years, and participates in several competitions and recitals. She earned Honorable Mention in the New York State Music Teachers Association Empire State Competition, High School Instrumental Division
last fall. She has also played NYSSMA solos for a few years; last year she did
level 6 solos for piano, piccolo, and flute, earning a 98, 100, and 100 respectively. Last spring, she competed in the Southern Tier Music Teachers’ Association High School Music Competition, where she came in first place in the
woodwinds/brass/percussion category, and tied for 1st place in the Winners’
Recital. Now she is honored to be playing a solo concerto with the Binghamton Community Orchestra. Emily would like to thank her flute teacher
Nina Stutzman, BYSO director Barry Peters, family, and friends for their love
and support.
Amanda Schmitz
Violist, Amanda Schmitz, a senior at UnionEndicott High School, is pleased and excited to be performing with the BCO. Amanda’s musical accomplishments
include performing in several BCMEA All-County Orchestras and Area All-State Orchestras, NYASTA String Institute at Ithaca College, and the New York State Summer
School of the Arts School of Orchestral Studies at Skidmore
College and Saratoga Performing Arts Center. She has
been a long-standing member of the Binghamton Youth
Symphony Orchestra, first joining the Junior Orchestra in 2005 and then the
Senior Orchestra in 2009, and joined the Binghamton Community Orchestra
this year. She has performed in several pit orchestras for musicals at UnionEndicott, and also at Maine-Endwell. This year’s musical will be her fifth
show. Amanda has been adjudicated in NYSSMA for several years and last
year competed in the STMTA High School Music Competition, winning a
place in the Winners’ Recital, and selected as a winner in the Concerto Competition, and is now honored to perform. Amanda’s dream has been to perform this concerto with a full orchestra and she is very happy to realize that
dream, and to share it with her peers, teachers, family, friends and her community.
Amanda also plays alto saxophone, and is a member of the Teen Jazz
Project and the Endicott Community Band. She has been a long-standing
member of her high school marching band and serves as woodwind captain,
music leader and treasurer, as well as a long-standing member of her high
school jazz band and concert band.
Continued >
Amanda Schmitz (cont.)
She has also participated in BCMEA All-County Band and Jazz Band,
and NYSSMA for saxophone ensembles and major organization festivals with
her high school band. Amanda loves jazz just as much as classical music.
Outside of music, Amanda is a member of the Spanish Club and Key Club,
and is hosting her 2nd exchange student from Korea, learning the Korean language and sharing a cultural exchange.
Amanda wishes to thank the BCO for allowing her to work and perform with them, as she will miss everyone when she goes to college next year.
She wishes to attend the School of Music at Ithaca College with a dual major
in music performance and education. She would like to especially thank her
parents, grandparents, and teachers Laura Hine and Shari Rivenburg for all of
their help and support.
Robin Linaberry
Mr. Robin Linaberry has thirty years’ teaching experience, directing bands and jazz bands at every level from
elementary to adult. As Director of Bands at Maine-Endwell
Senior High School (NY), Mr. Linaberry’s bands have earned
superior ratings and accolades locally as well as in performances and competitions throughout the east coast and Canada. Mr. Linaberry is the Conductor and Music Director of
The Southern Tier Concert Band, a professional-level wind
band based in the Binghamton, NY area.
With advanced degrees in Conducting, he is in great demand as a
guest conductor of festival honor bands and has served as an adjunct professor
at Ithaca College (Brass Choir), Binghamton University (Wind Ensemble) and
Broome Community College (Low Brass). He has been a conductor for the
Signature Band and Choir Camps, and has served for nearly a decade as a
Head Director and band conductor for the American Music Abroad “Red
Tour”, taking exceptional American teen musicians to Europe each summer
for concert performances. With AMA, he has lead music performances in
France, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Belgium, Luxembourg, Holland and
Italy. For nearly twenty years, he was the vocalist & electric bass player for
popular jazz groups in the Southern Tier of New York. He is a frequent author
of articles in music education journals, and is the recipient of numerous
awards and honors. He served as the national Band Mentor in MENC’S “Ask
The Mentor” program, and is now serving as a National Band Association
Mentor.
Robin lives in Owego, NY with his wife Patty, an outstanding teacher
who is also his best friend and the love of his life. They have two wonderful
adult children, and two very spoiled Papillon dogs.
Violin I
Douglas Diegert, Concertmaster
Peter Roseboom
Maria Sanphy
Joan Hickey
Kent Stannard
Michelle Swan
Amy Saeger
Kelsey Tombs
Violin II
Linda Best, Principal
Tamara Nist
Marian Sanphy
Lynn Aylesworth
Renee Hewett
Jennifer Reyes
Betty Bayles
Viola
Laura Hine, Principal
Mary Diegert
Shelley Zacks
Amanda Schmitz
Cello
Ruth Fisher, Principal
Emily Creo
Joni Cermak
Alicia Kuehn
Cecily O’Neil
Marianne Myers
Bass
Elizabeth Bartlett, Principal
Tom Strilka
Tim Roossien
Julian Shepherd
Keyboard
Nathan Raboy
Flute
Beth Wiemann, Principal
Heather Kriesel
Betsy Bartz
Oboe
Kathleen Karlsen, Principal
King Wiemann
Clarinet
Carol Smith, Principal
Sean Denninger
Bassoon
Dana Gleason, Principal
Robin Hashey
French Horn
Beth Lewis, Principal
Jeff Barker
Kris Bertram
David Banner
Trumpet
Michael Steidle, Principal
Robert Crissman
John Ruth
Jonathan Sorber
Trombone
Steven Hine, Principal
Raymond Avery
Dana Tirrell
Tuba
Loren Small
Timpani
Nate Palmer
Percussion
Andrew Hahn
Chris Mydeki
Adi Sagar
Program Notes
Overture to Egmont, Op. 84
Ludwig van Beethoven
Defiance of tyranny was a principle of supreme importance to Beethoven and a subject that gives explosive power to Goethe’s tragedy Egmont. Beethoven’s admiration for Goethe bordered on worship, so it is no
wonder that when the Vienna theater invited Beethoven to contribute the
incidental music for a revival of Egmont, he responded with one of his most
eloquent scores. It includes nine numbers, of which the Overture is the
most stirring.
Like Beethoven’s three “Leonore” overtures, his Egmont Overture
forecasts the essence of the action to come and to feel the full impact of the
Overture it is almost essential to have seen or, at least, read the drama it
introduces. Goethe’s Egmont recounts the sixteenth-century military subjugation of the Netherlands by the Spanish Duke of Alva; it shows their betrayal, their agony, the seeds of their growing defiance, a dream of victory,
and ends with a call to revolution.
Beethoven’s Overture opens with heavily accented chords in an
ominous F minor. Is it only coincidence that their rhythm is that of an ancient Spanish dance, the saraband, slowed down to a threatening pace? If
Beethoven intended such an association, the chords might refer to the vindictive Duke of Alva. But we might be taking things too literally.
More lyric phrases follow. An innocent little melodic offshoot
grows in importance by sheer repetition until suddenly, as we plunge into
the main section of the Overture, our innocent little offshoot has become a
sweeping, plunging phrase in the cellos – a thematic leader and herald of
revolt. This theme builds to a great climax for full orchestra. Its forward
drive culminates in a commanding, quick version of the chords which open
the Overture. There is the briefest sort of symphonic development before
the return of the main themes.
Suddenly the headlong pace of the orchestra is arrested. There is a
tiny pause of terror. The orchestra, drained of color and motion, fades almost to silence. Then, out the depths of – defeat? of weakness? of despair?
– out of the depths of the orchestra, almost inaudibly at first, we hear a
fresh excitement spread among the instruments, swelling irresistibly, with
mounting confidence and power, to unmistakable fanfares of victory; of
rejoicing.
Concertino for Flute and Orchestra
Cecile Chaminade
The third of four surviving children, Chaminade received her earliest musical instruction from her mother, a pianist and singer. Her first
pieces date from the mid-1860s. Because of paternal opposition to her enrolling at the Paris Conservatory, she studied privately with members of its
faculty. In the early 1880s Chaminade began to compose in earnest, and
works such as the First Piano Trio, Op.11 (1880) and the Orchestral Suite,
Op.20 (1881) were well received. She wrote a comic opera, La Sévillane,
which had a private performance in 1882. Other major works of the decade were the ballet Callirhoë , Op.37 (1888); the popular Concertstück,
Op.40 for piano and orchestra; and Les amazones, a dramatic symphony,
given on the same performance (1888). After 1890, with the notable exception of the Concertino, Op.107, commissioned by the Paris Conservatory (1902), and her only Piano Sonata (Op.21, 1895), Chaminade composed
mainly character pieces and art songs. This music became very popular,
especially in England and the United States, and Chaminade helped to promote sales through extensive concert tours. From 1892 she performed regularly in England and became a welcome guest of Queen Victoria.
Meanwhile, enthusiasm grew in the USA, largely through the
many Chaminade clubs formed around 1900. In the fall of 1908, she
agreed to make the arduous journey here and appeared in 12 cities, from
Boston to St Louis. With the exception of the concert at Philadelphia’s
Academy of Music in early November, which featured the Concertstück,
the program consisted of piano pieces and art songs. The tour was a financial, but not critical, success. Prestigious awards began to come her way,
culminating in admission to the Légiond’Honneur in 1913 – the first time it
was granted to a female composer. While her compositional activity eventually subsided because of World War I and deteriorating health,
Chaminade made several recordings, many of them piano rolls, between
1901 and 1914. In later years she was tended by her niece, Antoinette Lorel, who attempted to promote Chaminade’s music after her death in 1944.
The Concertino, performed today by 2011 STMTA Winner Emily
Bartz, has remained a staple of the flute repertory; while it is a large-scale
work and thus represents a relatively small part of her output, the piece still
provides a sense of the elegance and attractiveness of Chaminade’s music.
Rhapsodie
Ernest Bloch
(from Suite Hébraïque for Viola and Orchestra)
Swiss-born Ernest Bloch was a violinist and composer strongly
influenced by late 19th-century German, French and Russian styles. With
maturity and the development of his own compositional voice, however,
Bloch began to compose works powerfully expressing his Jewish faith and
identity; these included settings of several Psalms, the symphony Israel,
the work Schelomo, and a Hebraic rhapsody for cello and orchestra. He
moved to the United States in 1916, acquiring American citizenship in
1924 and holding several important teaching appointments over the years.
During this time Bloch continued to write deeply spiritual compositions
influenced by the Bible and Jewish liturgical texts (including Avodath Hakodesh, based on texts from the Reform Jewish Prayer Book). The Suite
Hébraïque is among these later pieces. It has three movements
(Rhapsodie, Processional, and Affirmation), and today you will hear 2011
STMTA Winner Amanda Schmitz play the Rhapsodie.
Although Ernest Bloch has been described in various encyclopedias and dictionaries as a “Jewish” composer, and, although his fame today
rests largely upon a smattering of compositions with distinctly Judaic associations, an analysis of the musician’s total output indicates the so-called
“Jewish” works represent a small facet of his art. Be that as it may, this
body of musical literature established for its creator an international reputation and did much to set in motion the course he was to follow as a major
creative artist.
During the final decade of his life, in which period Bloch composed largely abstract works, the Suite Hébraïque for viola (or violin) and
orchestra emerged, the outcome of a six-day “Blochfest” in Chicago held
in 1950. This celebration of the artist’s 70th year included a luncheon given in his honor by the Covenant Club. The Suite Hébraïque was written in
appreciation to the Jewish organization; it received its first performance in
January of 1953 by the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. Although the
themes, with characteristic augmented seconds, have Hebraic allusions, it
would be nearly impossible to define specific sources for them. The scoring for viola or violin is a practical consideration. The orchestration without piccolo, English horn, tuba, trombone, celesta or piano, is in keeping
with the rather light style of the piece. The brief cadenza, which appears in
the opening Rhapsodie, contains the basic folk-like material with which the
movement is permeated.
Slavonic Dances, Op. 46
Antonín Dvorák
Antonín Dvorák's first set of Slavonic Dances, Op. 46, was the
music that finally launched his fame beyond the borders of his native Bohemia. Behind their success is a heartwarming story of one great musical
master taking time to help another. By the mid-1870s, Johannes Brahms
was securely established as one of Europe's leading composers and, along
with Edouard Hanslick, the well-known critic, was serving on a committee
to award stipends to talented but undiscovered composers living in outlying provinces of the Austrian Empire. Since the present-day Czech Republic was then a dependency of Austria, Dvorák was one of the candidates.
Deeply impressed by his music, Brahms went to his own publisher, the
prestigious Simrock of Berlin, and urged the firm to take on the young
Czech composer. Moreover, Brahms used his considerable clout to secure
performances for Dvorák's music. Thus began another illustrious career
and a devoted friendship between the two men that lasted until Brahms'
death.
Simrock had recently reaped substantial profits from Brahms' Hungarian Dances for piano four-hands. In 1878, the firm asked Dvorák to
create a similar set, based on his own native dance traditions. The Czech
responded with the eight Slavonic Dances of Op. 46, arranging them for
orchestra as well as piano duet. They were such a success that Simrock
asked for more. With his career now in full swing, Dvorák did not fulfill
this request until 1886 when he composed the eight Slavonic Dances, Op.
72, a set of more sophisticated concert dances, several steps removed from
their folk origins. But it is the robust dances of Op. 46, orchestrated in
bright primary colors, which have remained the most popular to this day.
Propelled by the rhythmic patterns and characters of traditional Czech folk
dances, they show Dvorák's superb melodic gift at its best.
Though they may sound like genuine folk tunes, all the melodies in
the Slavonic Dances are Dvorák’s own inventions. And despite their uncomplicated surface appeal, these dances are actually quite complex and
sophisticated in their construction. Each dance consists of two or more
dance themes of contrasting mood and character and using different keys,
modes (major and minor being freely mixed) and tempos. The basic form
resembles that of a rondo, with alternating refrain and episodes.
The opening and closing dances of the set –No. 1 and No. 8 – are
irresistibly high-spirited dances in the style of the Furiant, the boldest
Czech folk dance. Though they are written in triple meter, listen for the
complex cross-rhythms suggesting a duple meter; a characteristic of the
Furiant. No. 4 is a stately dance in triple meter known as the sousedská; its
companion dance is more mischievous, with clucking-hen effects. Opening with a wry oboe-bassoon duet, No. 7 is a skocná, characterized by a
flexible tempo that keeps running down, then speeding up again.
History of the Binghamton Community Orchestra
Following the transition of the Binghamton Symphony from a local, mixed-professional ensemble to a regional, professional orchestra,
many local residents and musicians yearned for the opportunity to play
orchestral music. “A great longing and an urgent need. . .” was the expression attributed to violinist and BCO founder John Hagopian, but felt by
many in our community who took the initiative to recruit the players, a
conductor, and rehearsal space to turn the yearning into a reality.
So it was at the time of our humble 1983 beginnings. John
Hagopian, Lori Cyr (clarinet), Dave Banner (French horn), and Tony DiOrio (clarinet) were among the early organizers. Other long-time players
from the original seasons include Betsy Bartz (flute and piccolo), Carol
Smith (clarinet), Dana Thompson Gleason (bassoon), Del Cobleigh
(trumpet), Joan Hickey, Jan Loso, and Betty Bayles (violins), and Arthur
Washell, Adrienne Bennett, Laura House, and Shelly Zacks (violas), and
Ted Ronsvalle (bass). Beloved conductor of the Binghamton Youth Symphony, Bernie Shifrin, agreed to serve as interim conductor until a music
director could be hired. Soon the orchestra and Asher Raboy found one
another, and began to plan an ambitious concert season that included
George Gershwin’s Piano Concerto in F and Johannes Brahms Serenade
No. 1 in D major.
Some of the most wonderful experiences of any family or community group involve welcoming newcomers, and saying goodbye to those
who leave are among the most difficult. Sadly, John Hagopian, Jan Loso,
Tony DiOrio, Arthur Washell, Laura House, and Doug Osterhoudt
(trombone) have passed away. Other members have moved to different
areas, retired, or taken temporary leave for family or professional responsibilities. Nonetheless, the orchestra has been blessed throughout its history
with gifted and dedicated music directors, exceptional soloists, and our
faithful instrumentalists. Asher Raboy was followed by interim conductors
Nathan Raboy (his brother) and David Montgomery. Our next music director, Fitzroy Stewart, returned from Germany to Broome County with his
wife Ghislaine (violin) and led us through several seasons. Later, Dr. Timothy Perry and Cayenna Ponchione served, to be followed by our current
music director, Dr. Jeffrey Jacobsen. In each case, the orchestra rose to its
challenges, and each music director has led with inspiration, grace, and
good humor.
The BCO continues to welcome new players and develop new repertoire. In addition to our formal concert season, we offer run-out performances to senior centers and rural areas. We are grateful for the support
of our community, our families and friends for helping to continue the best
tradition of music performed for the love of it!
Southern Tier Music Teachers’ Association
The Southern Tier Music Teachers’ Association was formed
in 1995 as a tax-deductible charitable organization. It was created to
assist the community of private music teachers residing in the Binghamton area, by providing organizational support and a variety of
learning and performance opportunities for music students. STMTA
activities enhance and augment those musical experiences already
available through private studios and school music programs. An
annual High School Music Competition has been held for twelve
years. Winners are chosen each year to perform with the Binghamton Community Orchestra in the following year’s season.
This year’s Winners’ Recital
of the High School Music Competition
will take place on Sunday, April 1st at 7:30 p.m.
in Casadesus Hall at Binghamton University
STMTA also provides outreach to students with need through
Summer Enrichment Scholarships. These scholarships give financial
aid for students to attend music camps or take private music lessons
during the summer. Any student may participate in the High School
Music Competition or apply for a Summer Enrichment Scholarship,
regardless of whether he or she studies with an STMTA teacher.
The BCO would like to thank the STMTA
for this partnership of providing wonderful young soloists
with a quality orchestral experience!
For more information about STMTA, please visit:
www.STMTA.org
Advertising revenue funds a significant
portion of the BCO’s activities and has
helped us present quality orchestral
experiences since 1984.
To return the favor, the BCO would like
to invite you to show your support
to these fine establishments.
Needless to say, PLEASE let them
know that you saw their ad
in the BCO program!