Sun.8.3 Free Family Concert

Sunday, August 3, 1:00pm Santa Cruz Civic Auditorium
Tickets: Free

Concert begins with the popular petting zoo-style Tour of the Orchestra.

Jennifer Higdon: Machine (Conducted by Carolyn Kuan, Cabrillo Festival Assistant Conductor)
Michael Daugherty : Troyjam (Marco Barricelli , narrator) (West Coast Premiere)

PROGRAM NOTES:

Machine (2002)
Jennifer Higdon (b. 1962)

Born in Brooklyn, New York, Jennifer Higdon is active as a freelance composer. Recently named 1999 Pew Fellow in the Arts, she is also a recipient of several awards, including a Guggenheim Fellowship and two awards from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. Her orchestral work, Shine, was named Best New Piece of the Year in USA Today's Top Picks in Classical Music for 1996.  Her works are recorded on 10 discs, including recent releases on CRI and the Crystal label. Her pieces wissahickon poeTrees; My True Love's Hair; rapid.fire; Sing, Sing; and Deep In The Night have been released on separate labels. Recent commissions include works for the Minnesota Orchestra, the Orchestra of St. Luke's, the contemporary music group eighth blackbird, the Verdehr Trio, and the Van Cliburn Competition. Higdon currently teaches at the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia. The Cabrillo Festival performed her Fanfare Ritmico in 2001 and her Concerto for Orchestra and blue cathedral in 2004. Last season saw the world premiere of the Saxophone Concerto, arranged from her earlier Oboe Concerto.

Machine was introduced on March 6, 2003, by the National Symphony Orchestra at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. with guest conductor Giancarlo Guerrero on the podium. Machine was a John and June Hechinger Commission, part of the Encore Series that was conceived by music director Leonard Slatkin. Higdon has written the following very brief note:

I wrote Machine as an encore tribute to composers like Mozart and Tchaikovsky, who seemed to be able to write so many notes and so much music that it seems like they were machines!

Not recorded
 

Troyjam for Narrator and Orchestra (2008) (West Coast Premiere)
Michael Daugherty (b. 1954)

The music of Michael Daugherty has been featured at many previous Cabrillo Festival concerts, beginning in 1995 with a performance of his Dead Elvis (1993). In 1998 the Festival performed two works, Metropolis Symphony (1988-93) and Motown Metal (1994), and Le Tombeau de Liberace (1996) the following year. Three works were performed in 2002: Bells for Stokowski (2001), Route 66 (1998) and UFO (1999), and two more in 2003, Rosa Parks Boulevard (2000) and the violin concerto Fire and Blood (2003). Many of these performances have been West Coast premieres, as was one of Daugherty’s most recent works, Time Machine (2003), performed at the Cabrillo Festival in 2006.

Troyjam (2008) for Narrator and Orchestra was commissioned by the National Symphony Orchestra of Washington, D.C., a program of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, Leonard Slatkin, Music Director, and made by possible by a gift from Ann and Tom Friedman. The first performance was given by the National Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Leonard Slatkin, on May 18, 2008 at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C. Daugherty has provided the following notes for Troyjam:

The story of the Trojan War is told in Homer’s epic poem, the Iliad. Homer tells how the ancient Greeks sailed to the city of Troy and fought many battles against the Trojans for ten years on the beach in front of their city. The chief heroes of these battles were swift-footed Achilles (for the Greeks) and greathearted Hektor (for the Trojans).

In her poem Troyjam, Anne Carson retells Homer's story with a twist. Her narrative begins: "When the Greeks came to Troy they brought their whole orchestra with them, the Panhellenic Symphony Orchestra of Ancient Greece, Homer conducting." Instead of fighting each other, the Greeks and the Trojans decide to "end this stupid war" by playing the instruments of the orchestra in a wild "jam" session. The message of Troyjam is more than relevant in today's world: let's make music not war.

In my composition, I use the instruments of the orchestra to create a musical setting for Anne Carson's text. I have composed two distinctive themes to represent Achilles and Hektor: the musical theme of Achilles (first played by violins and eventually all the strings) is swift and agile, while the musical theme of Hektor (first played by trumpets and eventually all the brass) is noble and dark.

Troyjam is composed in two parts, performed without break. Part I features the narrator, reciting Anne Carson's text with musical commentary. We hear trilling strings and quivering woodwinds playing rapid scales and stirring melodies; we hear the timpani and bass drum play thundering rhythms; we hear the brass section playing majestic fanfares, and we hear the double basses booming like the gods. Part II features the whole orchestra playing together, creating a musical fantasy on the Achilles and Hektor themes. My composition ends peacefully with the harp, reminding us of the great Achilles playing his lyre.

Not recorded

Photos (clockwise from L): Family Concert audience (r.r jones), Orchestra Petting Zoo (r.r. jones), 'Pluck' Petting Zoo assistant (Nancy Bertossa), Michael Daugherty (Dorothy Gottlieb)