MANHATTAN SCHOOL OF MUSIC CHAMBER SINFONIA CONDUCTED BY GEORGE MANAHAN

to present

New York Premiere of RICHARD DANEILPOUR’S “Come Up from the Fields, Father”
With Cellist David GEBER and Baritone THOMAS HAMPSON, guest artists

Also programmed: Mozart’s Symphony No. 38 in D Major, K. 504 “Prague;”

Stravinsky’s Divertimento “The Fairy Kiss” and Virgil Thomson’s “The Plow that Broke the Plains,” with THOMAS HAMPSON, narrator

Concert will offer a screening of Pare Lorentz’s 1936 film “The Plow that Broke the Plains”

Thursday, March 1, 2012 at 7:30 p.m. in Borden Auditorium

This Concert Celebrates the 20^th Anniversary of MSM’S Graduate Program in Orchestral Performance and The Third Annual Elizabeth Beinecke Concert

The Manhattan School of Music Chamber Sinfonia, conducted by George Manahan, will perform in the School’s Borden Auditorium on Thursday, March 1 at 7:30 p.m.  The program will offer the New York premiere of Richard Danielpour’s Civil War inspired Come Up from the Fields, Father with Cellist David Geber and Baritone Thomas Hampson as guest artists. This work, originally conceived in 2009 as a chamber work composed for baritone, viola and piano, was composed for Curtis on Tour receiving its premiere in Philadelphia.  The orchestral version of Come Up from the Fields, Father was co-commissioned by the Wheeling (West Virginia) Symphony, Manhattan School of Music, and the Vermont Symphony, receiving its world premiere on November 11, 2011 in Wheeling, West Virginia.  

Mr. Danielpour writes: “Come Up from the Fields Father is a setting of a Walt Whitman poem that is almost like an operatic scene; it involves the narrative of a family that discovers through a letter that their only son has been killed in the war.  While in this instance, Whitman was referring to the Civil War, the narrative is remarkably timely and, while Whitman was using a particular idea/image, he was able to imbue it with the universal, largely through the presence of the silently suffering mother in the poem, who is represented in the music by the solo obbligato instrument.”

The program will also include Mozart’s Symphony No. 38 in D Major, K.504 “Prague;” and Igor Stravinsky’s Divertimento from La Baiser de la Fée, The Fairy’s Kiss.  The Stravinsky work was originally conceived as a ballet completed on October 30, 1928 receiving its premiere conducted by Stravinsky on November 27, 1928.

Thomas Hampson returns as narrator for Virgil Thomson’s film score, The Plow that Broke the Plains. Thomson’s score is set to the 1936 film by Pare Lorentz (a noted film critic and avid Franklin D. Roosevelt supporter) that depicts the devastation in the Great Plains.  The music is a 25-minute collage of cowboy songs such as “I Ride an Old Paint,” “Streets of Laredo,” and “Git Along Little Doggies,” as well as dance tunes and “The Doxology,” among others, all woven together using Thomson’s harmonies and counterpoint.  In 1999 the film, The Plow that Broke the Plains, was selected by the Library of Congress for preservation in the United States National Film Registry as being “culturally, historically, and aesthetically significant. A screening of Pare Lorentz’s 1936 film “The Plow That Broke the Plains” will also be featured.

This concert is being presented as the Third Annual Elizabeth Beinecke Concert.  Elizabeth Beinecke, who passed away on April 14, 2009, was a cherished friend to MSM and her loyal support made it possible for many talented young musicians to attend Manhattan School of Music.  The evening also celebrates the 20^th Anniversary of MSM’s Graduate Program in Orchestral Performance, a graduate program chaired by New York Philharmonic Concertmaster Glenn Dicterow that trains instrumentalists to be orchestral musicians. 

The Manhattan School of Music Chamber Sinfonia was created as the principal training ensemble for students in MSM’s renowned Graduate Program in Orchestral Performance.  This ensemble has been conducted by noted guest conductors including Philippe Entremont, Zdenek Macal, George Manahan, Pinchas Zukerman, among others.  The ensemble traveled to Nice, France in August 2011 as the resident ensemble conducted by Philippe Entremont of the Académie International d’Eté de Nice’s summer festival, “Les Concerts du Cloîitre.”

Manhattan School of Music’s Graduate Program in Orchestral Performance, established twenty years ago as the first credited degree program of its kind, seeks to nourish musicians of the highest artistic caliber, preparing them intensively in the orchestral repertoire for careers as orchestral players.  The curriculum is designed to train the exceptionally advanced student in non-musical aspects of the life in the modern orchestra as well as performance through special programs such as the Orpheus Institute, and vigorous training in audition preparation.  The MSM Chamber Sinfonia was created as a flagship ensemble for students in the Graduate Program in Orchestral Performance and also includes students from the Pinchas Zukerman Performance Progran as well as other advanced instrumentalists.

Chaired by New York Philharmonic concertmaster Glenn Dicterow, the Graduate Program in Orchestral Performance faculty is made up of principal players of major New York orchestras, including the New York Philharmonic and Metropolitan Opera Orchestra.  Master classes are given frequently by principal players from world-renowned orchestras such as the Vienna Philharmonic, Chicago Symphony, Berlin Philharmonic, Cleveland Orchestra and Orchestre National de France.

Program graduates have gone on to win positions with orchestras worldwide.  Among them are the New York Philharmonic, as well as the Los Angeles, Miami, Fort Wayne and Orlando philharmonics; and the orchestras of the Chicago Lyric Opera, Kennedy Center Opera, and Metropolitan Opera; with the New World Symphony and the Colorado, Honolulu, Louisiana, Nashville, New Jersey, Puerto Rico, San Antonio, San Francisco, Seattle, Vancouver and Virginia symphony orchestras; in Europe with the Gewandhaus Orchestra of Leipzig and SWR Radio Symphony in Stuttgartt; in Spain with the Seville Orchestra; with the Stockholm Philharmonic and the Royal Danish Opera in Scandinavia; with the KZN Philharmonic in South Africa; the New Japan and Hong Kong philharmonics in Asia; and the Auckland and Western Australian symphonies in the Pacific.

Artist Bios (alpha order):

Richard Danielpour has established himself as one of the most gifted and sought-after composers of his generation. His music is of large and romantic gestures, brilliantly orchestrated and rhythmically vibrant. In 1996, Sony Classical recognized his special talent in signing the composer to an exclusive recording contract. Mr. Danielpour’s compositions have been heard throughout the United States and abroad in performances by orchestras including the Baltimore, Dallas, Indianapolis, Milwaukee, Minnesota, New York, Philadelphia, St. Louis, San Francisco, Seattle, and Utah symphonies; as well as the New York Chamber Symphony and the American Composers Orchestra. His Celestial Night was written to celebrate the October 1997 opening of the New Jersey Performing Arts Center. Among the more than 30 other organizations that have commissioned his music are the New York Philharmonic, the San Francisco, Seattle, and Pittsburgh symphony orchestras, and the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, among others.  His music has been championed by such soloists as Yo-Yo Ma (whose recording of Danielpour’s Cello Concerto won a Grammy), Jessye Norman, Dawn Upshaw and Emmanuel Ax.  Mr. Danielpour was born in New York City on January 28, 1956, and studied at the New England Conservatory and The Juilliard School. His teachers have included Vincent Persichetti and Peter Mennin.  Richard Danielpour has been a member of Manhattan School of Music’s composition faculty since 1993.

David Geber, Vice President for Instrumental Performance at Manhattan School of Music, received his early musical training in Los Angeles, where he was raised in a family of professional cellists. He studied at the Eastman School of Music and The Juilliard School, from which he holds Bachelor of Music and Master of Music degrees. His principal teachers included Claus Adam and Ronald Leonard. Mr. Geber has been the recipient of numer­ous cello and chamber music awards, including the Walter W. Naumburg Award and the Coleman Chamber Music Prize. He has appeared as soloist at Tanglewood, as well as with the Philadelphia Orchestra and Montreal Symphony. A strong supporter of new music, he has premiered numerous works for cello as well as varied chamber music combinations. As a founding member of the American String Quartet, he concertized with that ensemble for twenty-eight years. Mr. Geber is Vice President for Instrumental Performance at Manhattan School of Music, as well as a longtime member of the School’s cello and chamber music faculty. Other seasonal affiliations include the Music Academy of the West in Santa Barbara, California and the String Quartet Seminar at Tanglewood. He has recorded for Albany Records, Capstone Records, CRI, Musical Heritage Society, New World Records, Nonesuch Records, and RCA. Mr. Geber frequently gives recitals and master classes in North America, and has adjudicated for major international string competitions, including Bordeaux, Evian, and Naumburg. He is on the Board of Directors of the Walter W. Naumburg Foundation and the American Friends of Kronberg Academy. His cello is a rare G. B. Ruggieri, made in Cremona in 1667.

American baritone Thomas Hampson enjoys a singular international career as a recitalist, opera singer, and recording artist, and maintains an active interest in teaching, research, and technology.  He has performed in all of the world’s most important concert halls and opera houses with many of today’s most renowned singers, pianists, conductors, and orchestras.  He is one of the most important interpreters of German romantic song, and with his celebrated “Song of America” project, has become the “ambassador” of American song.  Through the Hampsong Foundation, founded in 2003, he employs the art of song to promote intercultural dialogue and understanding.  Recognized as today’s leading interpreter of Mahler’s songs, Hampson has performed Mahler in many of the world’s musical capitals with orchestras such as the Vienna Philharmonic, the New York Philharmonic, the NDR Sinfonieorchester, and the Czech Philharmonic.  He has also featured the composer’s songs in a series of recitals in Berlin, New York, Munich, Hamburg, Vienna, Zurich, London, Amsterdam, Paris, Milan, Madrid, and Oslo.  Thomas Hampson holds an honorary doctorate from Manhattan School of Music where he also is a member of MSM’s Board of Trustees.

George Manahan has had an esteemed career embracing everything from the opera to the concert stage, the traditional to the contemporary.  This season he began his second year as Manhattan School of Music’s Director of Orchestral Activities as well as his second year as Music Director of the American Composers Orchestra. He is also a guest conductor at the Curtis Institute of Music and served as Music Director of the New York City Opera for fourteen seasons and was hailed for his leadership of the orchestra.  Mr. Manahan is especially known in the opera world for his musical guidance of diverse productions including productions of La Faniculla del West, Daphne, Ermione, Dialogues of the Carmelites, Cendrillon, Die Tote Stadt. He has toured Japan with NYCO’s production of Little Women. His guest appearances include with the symphonies of Atlanta, San Francisco, Milwaukee, Indianapolis, Charlotte, and New Jersey, where he served as Acting Music Director for four seasons, as well as the National Symphony, Juilliard, Manhattan School of Music, the Warsaw Philharmonic, the Music Academy of the West, and the Aspen Music Festival. He is a regular guest conductor with the opera companies of Santa Fe, Portland, and Glimmerglass Opera, and has also appeared with the opera companies of Seattle, Chicago, Opera Theatre of St. Louis, Opera National du Paris, Teatro de Communale de Bologna, the Bergen Festival (Norway), the Casals Festival (Puerto Rico) and Minnesota Op­era, where he was Principal Conductor. As Music Director of the Richmond Symphony (VA) from 1987-98, he was honored four times by the American Society of Composers and Publishers (ASCAP) for his commitment to 20th-century music.  In May 2011 Mr. Manahan ASCAP again honored him for his “career-long advocacy for American composers and the music of our time.”  George Manahan received his formal musical training at Manhattan School of Music, studying conducting with Anton Coppola and George Schick, and was appointed to the faculty of the school upon his graduation, at which time Juilliard awarded him a fellowship as Assistant Conductor with the American Opera Center.

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Thursday, March 1 at 7:30 p.m. * Borden Auditorium

Manhattan School of Music Chamber Sinfonia

George Manahan, conductor

David Geber, cellist; Thomas Hampson, baritone and narrator

W.A. Mozart                          Symphony No. 38 in D Major, K. 504, “Prague”

1756 – 1791

Richard Danielpour              Come Up from the Fields Father (New York Premiere)

b. 1956                                   Mr. Geber, cello

                                               Mr. Hampson, baritone

Igor Stravinsky                     Divertimento from Le Baiser fe la fée

1882 – 1971                           (The Fairy’s Kiss)

Virgil Thomson                    The Plow That Broke the Plains

1896 – 1989

With a screening of Pare Lorentz’s 1936 film The Plow That Broke the Plains