Friday, April 19, 2013 | 8 pmSpaulding Auditorium | Dartmouth College

Funded in part by The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, NEA Challenge Grant Fund, the Frank L. Harrington 1924 Fund No. 3, the Arthur J. 1903 and Nellie Z. Cohen Foundation, Nathan W. Pearson 1932 and Sons Fund, Gift of Miriam M. and James N. Weinstein A’95, M’95 and Hopkins Center Members.

Gabriel Kahane is the Music Alive Composer-in-Residence with Orpheus Chamber Orchestra. Music Alive is a national residency program of the League of American Orchestras and New Music USA.

presents

Music department residency

orPheUs chAMber orchestrA

withgabriel kahane voice, banjo, electric guitar

Post-Performance discussion You are invited to remain in the theater immediately following the performance for an informal discussion with the artists.

Verklärte Nacht (Transfigured Night), Op. 4 (1899) Arnold Schoenberg (1874-1951)

• intermission •

Gabriel’s Guide to the 48 States (2013) Gabriel Kahane (b. 1981) World Premiere

Gabriel Kahane voice, banjo, electric guitar

ProgrAM

orPheUs chAMber orchestrAViolins ...............................................Ronnie Bauch, Cyrus Beroukhim, Martha Caplin, Laura Frautschi,

Pala Garcia, Renée Jolles, Sophia Kessinger, Kyu-Young Kim, Richard Rood

Violas ..............................................Maureen Gallagher, Mark Holloway, Christof Huebner, Nardo Poy

Cello ................................................................ Greg Hesselink, Ahrim Kim, Priscilla Lee, Melissa Meell

Double Bass ...................................................................................................................... Jordan Frazier

Flute ........................................................................................................................... Susan Palma Nidel

Oboe .................................................................................................................................Michelle Farah

Clarinets ............................................................................................................ Mariam Adam, Alan Kay

Bassoons ......................................................................................Shelley Monroe Huang, Frank Morelli

Horns ............................................................................................................Joe Assi, Patrick Pridemore

Trumpet ..................................................................................................................................Carl Albach

Trombone ............................................................................................................................Richard Clark

Percussion ............................................................................................................................ James Baker

MetLife Foundation is the Official Tour Sponsor of the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra.

Orpheus Chamber Orchestra is represented in North America exclusively by Opus 3 and in Europe by Konzertdirektion Schmid. Orpheus has recorded for Deutsche Grammophon,

Sony Classical, EMI Classics, BMG/RCA Red Seal, Decca, Nonesuch, and Verve.

Verklärte nacht (transfigured night), op. 4 Arnold schoenberg (1874-1951)In Verklärte Nacht, Schoenberg applied the principle of a tone poem, familiar from the orchestral music of Liszt and Strauss, to chamber music. The work’s five connected sections follow the shape and mood of the poem Verklärte Nacht (Transfigured Night) by Richard Dehmel. Schoenberg’s original scoring matches the pioneering sextets by Brahms, while the chromatic harmonies reveal an affinity to Wagner. This lush score is a reminder that Schoenberg’s evolution toward free atonality (around 1910) and ultimately the 12-tone system (around 1920) was grounded in a deep appreciation and understanding of functional harmony.

Listen for: A tonal journey of dark to light, beginning in a minor key and ending in the major mode of the same key. The descending scale and dotted rhythms from the first plodding passage reappear throughout the score in varying forms, including a hopeful rendition at the end.

The published score of Verklärte Nacht includes this English paraphrase of Dehmel’s poem, as translated by Henry Krehbiel:

Two mortals walk through a cold, barren grove. The moon sails over the tall oaks, which send their scrawny branches up through the unclouded moonlight. A woman speaks. She confesses a sin to the man at her side: she is with child and he is not its father. She had lost belief in happiness and, longing for life's fullness, for motherhood and mother’s duty, she had surrendered herself, shuddering, to the embraces of a man she knew not. She had thought herself blessed, but now life has avenged itself upon her, by giving her the love of him she walks with. She staggers onward,

gazing with lackluster eye at the moon which follows her. A man speaks. Let her not burden her soul with thoughts of guilt. See, the moon’s sheen enwraps the universe. Together they are driving over chill waters, but a flame from each warms the other. It, too, will transfigure the little stranger, and she will bear the child to him and make him, too, a child. They sink into each other's arms. Their breaths meet in kisses in the air. Two mortals walk through the wondrous moonlight.

Gabriel’s Guide to the 48 states gabriel kahane (b. 1981) The centerpiece and creative fruit of a two-year stint as composer-in-residence with Orpheus, Gabriel's Guide to the 48 States is Kahane's most ambitious orchestral work to date. The song cycle is a tribute to the American Guide Series, a set of tour guides commissioned in the 1930s by the US Government under the Federal Writers Project of the WPA. While there is no authorial attribution for specific chapters within these books, scholarship has revealed an immensely impressive coterie of literary titans; among them Richard Wright, Saul Bellow, Zora Neal Hurston, Ralph Ellison, and John Cheever, who all found employment with the Federal Writers Project. Setting texts culled from the guides, as well as from other primary source documents of the New Deal era, Kahane creates a vivid tapestry through brief movements devoted to folklore, history, natural setting, various towns and cities, as well as "motor tours" that shuttle through large swaths of the country, at great pace, in an all-encompassing musical language that pivots between folksy simplicity and steely modernism. In its totality, Gabriel's Guide offers a tour of the nation that is at once irreverent and yet rife with love of country.

Aaron Grad ©2013

ProgrAM notes

AboUt the ArtIstsThe 2012-2013 season marks orpheus chamber orchestra’s 40th year of making internationally acclaimed music while reinventing the way the world thinks about collaboration, outreach, and democratic leadership. With over 70 albums, including the Grammy Award-winning Shadow Dances: Stravinsky Miniatures, associations with the leading contemporary soloists, and 35 commissioned works as part of their history, Orpheus continues to grow this season, with innovative projects and new musical adventures around the globe. By performing without a conductor and integrating musicians into virtually every facet of the organization, Orpheus empowers its members and infuses performances with unparalleled energy.

2012-13 has been a season of firsts for Orpheus. The orchestra’s season features soloists mezzo soprano Sasha Cooke, baritone Nathan Gunn, violinist Anne Akiko Meyers, Wayne Shorter Quartet, pianist Richard Goode, and composer-in-residence Gabriel Kahane. For its opening concert, Orpheus performed Beethoven’s iconic fifth symphony for the first time and in December debuted Barber’s Violin Concerto with Ms. Meyers. Pianist Richard Goode—considered by many an honorary member of Orpheus for having played dozens of concerts and recorded four unmatched albums over a nearly four-decade period with the orchestra—played Schumann’s Piano Concerto with Orpheus for the first time.

In addition to expanding its traditional repertoire, Orpheus has commissioned a staggering four world premieres this season. The season began with the world premiere of Augusta Read Thomas’ Earth Echoes, a piece commissioned by Orpheus and written to commemorate the death of Gustav Mahler. In November, Orpheus toured Russia, Germany, and Austria with jazz pianist Brad Mehldau premiering a newly commissioned work by Mehldau, Variations for Piano and Orchestra on a Melancholy Theme, which American audiences will hear next season. The tour with Mehldau also marked the first time Orpheus visited Russia. Finally,

Orpheus ends its US season with a large-scale new work by Gabriel Kahane, Orpheus’ first ever composer-in-residence, based on the WPA.

The Orpheus Process™, an original method that places democracy at the center of artistic execution, has been the focus of studies at Harvard and Stanford, and of leadership seminars at Morgan Stanley and Memorial Sloan-Kettering Hospital, among others. On and off the stage, Orpheus provides learning opportunities for over 1,500 New York City public school students each year. The Orpheus Institute offers musicians, university students, and business leaders experiential training in collective leadership through the Orpheus Process™. With support from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, the program is expanding nationwide; the 2011-12 season featured the launch of a year-long residency at the University of Maryland. During the 2012-13 season, the Orpheus Institute will be in residence at Interlochen Arts Academy, University of Maryland, Dartmouth College, Muhlenberg College, University of Connecticut, and Metro State University. As artists-in-residence, Orpheus visits the campuses to facilitate coaching sessions, rehearsals, and master classes as well as performances. Orpheus Chamber Orchestra last performed at the Hopkins Center in 2007.

gabriel kahane composer-in-residence has established himself as a leading voice among a generation of young composers redefining music for the 21st century. Hailed by the Los Angeles Times for “an all around dazzling performance” in his orchestral debut of the premiere of his song cycle Orinoco Sketches, with John Adams and the Los Angeles Philharmonic last season, Kahane’s work defies classifications. This season saw Kahane’s Carnegie Hall recital debut in October in addition to appearances at the University Musical Society of Ann Arbor, the Carolina Performing Arts Center, the Library of Congress, and dates with the Alabama Symphony, Waterloo-Cedar Falls Symphony, and Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, in the world premiere of a new concerto for Kahane and the orchestra as

the culmination of his two-year residency. His rich and focused sophomore album, Where are the Arms, featured Rob Moose (Bon Iver, Antony and the Johnsons, The National), Casey Foubert (Sufjan Stevens, Richard Swift, Pedro The Lion), and Matt Johnson (Jeff Buckley, Rufus Wainwright, St. Vincent), in eleven intricate and literate songs. February House, a full-length musical for which Kahane wrote music and lyrics, has enjoyed back-to-back productions at the Long Wharf Theater in New Haven and New York’s Public Theater, which commissioned the work. A cast album was released in the fall of 2012. Launched by his 2006 song cycle Craigslistlieder, Kahane has been commissioned by, among others, Carnegie Hall, Kronos Quartet, American Composers Orchestra, the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, and the Caramoor Festival. As a theater composer, he has received commissions from the Signature Theater in Arlington, VA and the Williamstown Theater Festival in MA. An avid chamber musician, Kahane has performed with such artists as Alisa Weilerstein, Jeremy Denk, Jonathan Biss, and the Calder Quartet. A recipient of multiple fellowships from the

MacDowell Colony and the Corporation of Yaddo, Kahane makes his home in Brooklyn, New York, in close company with a century-old piano and many books. “Mr. Kahane wrapped his strong catchy melodies and stylish piano playing in arrangements for strings, winds and brass that revealed a composer’s ear for color, balance and counterpoint. Mr. Kahane’s singing, comfortable and nuanced in past encounters, was a revelation here; at times he combined a pop balladeer’s directness with a jazz singer’s fluid phrasing, reaching new heights of expressiveness.” The New York Times

The Residency of Gabriel Kahane is made possible through Music Alive, a residency program of the League of American Orchestras and New Music USA. This national program is designed to provide orchestras with resources and tools to support their presentation of new music to the public and build support for new music within their institutions. Funding for Music Alive is provided by The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, The Aaron Copland Fund for Music, and The ASCAP Foundation.

AboUt the ArtIsts contInUed

While at Dartmouth, Gabriel Kahane and Orpheus Chamber Orchestra members visited classes in Music and Comparative Literature, performed student compositions, led chamber group coaching sessions and a musical theater singing master class, discussed organizational leadership with students and faculty from the Tuck School of Business and Rockefeller Business Entrepreneurship and Leadership group, presented a residence hall dinner concert and ’13 Class Council event, and participates in a post-performance discussion. For more information on Hop Outreach & Arts Education, call 603.646.2010 or visit hop.dartmouth.edu/online/outreach.

connectIng ArtIsts to the coMMUnIty

Marga rahmann Associate Director/General Manager Joseph clifford Director of Audience Engagement Jay cary Business and Administrative Officer bill Pence Director of Hopkins Center Film Margaret lawrence Director of Programming Joshua Price kol Director of Student Performance Programs

hoPkIns center MAnAgeMent stAFF

Jeffrey h. James Howard Gilman Director

D A RT M O UTHRECYCLES

Recycling bins provided in the lobby.

Assistive Listening Devices available in the lobby.

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Please turn off your cell phone inside the theater.