Stanford Philharmonia Paul Phillips music director and conductor

Christopher Costanza Stephen Harrison violoncello soloists

LIVESTREAM FROM BING CONCERT HALL TUESDAY, 18 MAY 2021 8:00 P.M.

STANFORD UNIVERSITY DEPARTMENT OF MUSIC

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Violoncello

Erik Roise ‘21, principal Major in Mechanical Engineering, Minor in Music, M.S. in Mechanical Engineering

Kevin Jung ’22 Major in Biology

Grace Mueller ’21 Major in Biology, Minor in History

Contrabass

Bryant Huang ‘21, principal Major in Architectural Design, Minor in Music

Griffin Glenn Ph.D. student in Applied Physics, 2nd year

Grant Parker Associate Professor and Chair, Department of Classics

Harp

Vivian Tang ’22 Majors in Economics and Classics

Keyboard

Jason Guo ’24 Major in Psychology, Minor in Music

PROGRAM

I

Adoration Florence Price (1887–1953)

I I

Danzas de Panama William Grant Still I. Tamborito. Moderato (1895–1978) II. Mejorana y Socavon. Allegro moderato III. Punto. Allegretto con grazia IV. Cumbia y Congo. Allegro con moto

I I I

Sospiri, Op. 70 Edward Elgar (1857–1934)

IV

Concerto for Two Violoncelli in G Major, RV 531 Antonio Vivaldi I. Allegro (1678–1741) II. Largo III. Allegro

Christopher Costanza and stephen harrison violoncello soloists

V

Serenade in E Major, Op. 22 Antonín Dvořák I. Moderato (1841–1904) II. Tempo di Valse III. Scherzo. Vivace IV. Larghetto V. Finale. Allegro vivace

Stanford Philharmonia gratefully acknowledges Virginia Pope Herbert and Zack Leuchars for their production assistance with the livestreamed

performance, and the Department of Music and ASSU for their generous support of Stanford’s orchestral program.

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STANFORD PHILHARMONIApaul phillips, Music Director and Conductor

Violin i

Tony Kim ‘21, concertmaster Major in Computer Science, M.S. in Computer Science

Robert Hu ’22 Major in Computer Science, Minor in Music

Hannah Walton ’22 Major in English, Minor in Human Biology

Lina Fowler ’22 Majors in Product Design and Political Science

Laurie Kost ’08 Clinical Research Manager, Stanford University

Ethan Chi ‘22 Majors in Computer Science and Music, M.S. in Computer Science

Joe Foley, Ph.D. ’13 Research engineer, Stanford School of Medicine

Violin ii

Richard Cheung ’24, principal Major in Computer Science, Minor in Music

Meilinda Sun ’22 Major in Computer Science

Carling Hank ’21 Major in Economics

Daphne Guo Master’s student in Chemistry, 2nd year

Hannah Mueller ’21 Major in History, Minor in Spanish

Andre Turati ’21 Major in Electrical Engineering, M.S. in Computer Science

Neil Wary ’22 Major in Human Biology, Minor in Music, M.S. in Epidemiology and Clinical Research

Viola

Alex Hwang, principal Ph.D. student in Applied Physics, 1st year

Ben Parks Ph.D. student in Computer Science, 4th year

Martin Altenburg ’21 Major in Electrical Engineering, M.S. in Computer Science

Carson Conley ’21 Major in Economics

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PROGRAM NOTES

FlorenCe priCe: Adoration The long overdue recognition of Black composers now taking place in the United States has directed belated attention to the music of William Grant Still, William Dawson, Hall Johnson, Ulysses Kay, Adolphus Hailstork, Margaret Bonds, and many others. One of the most remarkable of these composers is Florence Price, whose symphonies, concertos, and other works are being programmed much more widely than ever before. The publication in 2020 of The Heart of a Woman: The Life and Music of Florence B. Price by Rae Linda Brown (edited by Guthrie P. Ramsey, Jr.) by the University of Illinois Press is a major step forward in recognizing the talent and achievements of this pioneering composer.Florence Beatrice Smith was born in Little Rock, Arkansas, in 1887, to a family that belonged, in Rae Linda Brown’s words, “to the small, but significant, black upper class.” Her mother was a businesswoman and well-trained singer and pianist, while her father was Little Rock’s only African American dentist. Florence was a gifted student who gave her first piano performance at the age of four, had her first composition published at the age of 11, and graduated from high school as valedictorian at the age of 14! At the age of 16, she enrolled at the New England Conservatory of Music, where she majored in piano and organ. She studied composition with George Chadwick, director of the conservatory and prominent Boston composer. While composing her first symphony, “she began to explore her interest in the use of Negro folk materials in large-scale compositions”, according to Rae Linda Brown. Florence graduated in 1906 with honors, an artist diploma in organ, and a teaching certificate.In 1912, she married Thomas J. Price, a successful civil rights attorney, and for the next 15 years, focused primarily on raising a family and giving music lessons. She wrote teaching pieces for piano, and for violin with piano accompaniments, but no large-scale compositions. As racial oppression grew during the Jim Crow era, life in Little Rock became increasingly intolerable for the Price family. Following a brutal lynching there in 1927, the Prices moved to Chicago, where Florence’s creative activity flourished. In 1932, her Symphony in E Minor won First Prize in the Wanamaker Competition, leading to its premiere by the Chicago Symphony Orchestra — the first composition by a Black woman to be performed by a major orchestra. For the remaining 20 years of her life, Florence Price thrived as a composer and performer, with Marian Anderson, Roland Hayes, and Harry Burleigh and other leading vocalists performing her songs, and conductors such as Frederick Stock of the Chicago Symphony and Sir John Barbirolli of the Halle Orchestra in Manchester, England, programming her music. Adoration, a heartfelt composition that Florence Price composed for organ in 1951, has been arranged both for orchestral and choral ensembles. This arrangement was written last year by Jonathan Girard, Director of Orchestras at the University of British Columbia School of Music.

ABOUT THE ENSEMBLE

Orchestral activity at Stanford began in 1891, the year that Stanford University was founded, with the formation of an ensemble that eventually became the Stanford Symphony Orchestra. stanFord philharmonia is a chamber orchestra that performs concerts in Bing Concert Hall and other Bay Area venues. Last month, Stanford Philharmonia resumed live weekly rehearsals in Bing on Tuesday evenings. The Stanford Symphony Orchestra currently comprises two ensembles, SSO Strings and SSO Winds, each with about 15 players. SSO Strings and SSO Winds rehearse online on Monday and Thursday evenings using JackTrip and will present livestreamed performances on 27 May and 3 June, respectively.Stanford Philharmonia performs repertoire from the Baroque to the present, frequently with outstanding student and faculty soloists as well as renowned visiting artists. Recent performances have included concertos with flutist Carol Wincenc, Stanford faculty artists Owen Dalby and Robin Sharp, and winners of the annual Concerto Competition; a live performance of John Corigliano’s score for the film The Red Violin in collaboration with Stanford Live; and The Brilliance of Bach at the Fox Theater in Redwood City as part of the Stanford in Redwood City Speaker Series. Stanford Philharmonia and the Stanford Symphony Orchestra are supported by the Department of Music and the Associated Students of Stanford University (ASSU). Membership is open to all Stanford undergraduate and graduate students, faculty, staff, and members of the community. Anyone interested in auditioning for the Stanford Philharmonia, Stanford Symphony Orchestra, or Stanford Summer Symphony should contact Orchestra Administrator Adriana Ramírez Mirabal at orchestra@stanford.edu.For further information, visit orchestra.stanford.edu.

We are grateful for support from our community. If you are interested in learning more about supporting the Stanford Symphony Orchestra or Stanford Philharmonia, please contact Maude Brezinski, Senior Director of Development for the Arts, at Maudeb@stanford.edu or (650) 723-0044.

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William Grant still: Danzas de Panama

Like Florence Price, William Grant Still grew up in Little Rock, Arkansas, having been brought there at the age of three months from Woodville, Mississippi, by his mother Carrie shortly after his father’s untimely death. Still attended Union School, a combined elementary and high school for Black children that Florence Price, eight years his senior, had also attended. Both were taught by Charlotte Andrews Stephens, a remarkable educator whose teaching career in Little Rock spanned 70 consecutive years!When Still was nine, his mother married Charles B. Shepperson, whom Still described as “a splendid stepfather” in his autobiographical typescript “Personal Notes” (published in William Grant Still: A Study in Contradictions by Catherine Parsons Smith). Shepperson shared his love of music with Still, buying records that they’d listen to together, taking him to performances, and encouraging his musical education. After starting violin lessons at age 15, Still went on teach himself clarinet, saxophone, viola, and double bass, and became a professional cellist and oboist.Still attended Wilberforce University and the Oberlin Conservatory of Music, and as a young man worked as an arranger for W.C. Handy’s publishing company in New York. In 1921, he played oboe in the pit orchestra of Shuffle Along, the ground-breaking all-Black Broadway musical sensation by Noble Sissle and Eubie Blake. After the show’s lengthy run of over 500 performances in New York, it continued in Boston, where Still sought out composition lessons from George Chadwick, who’d previously taught Florence Price. Recognizing Still’s enormous talent, Chadwick took him on as a private student and refused payment for lessons. Still later studied with the French modernist composer Edgard Varèse.William Grant Still’s Afro-American Symphony, composed in 1930, enjoyed vast popularity and was the most widely performed symphony by an American composer until 1950. In 1934, Still boldly decided to leave New York, where he’d lived for fifteen years during the heyday of the Harlem Renaissance, and moved to Los Angeles, where he spent the rest of his life. In California, Still arranged music for films (including Pennies from Heaven and Lost Horizon) and wrote music for radio and television shows that included Gunsmoke and Perry Mason. Apart from his commercial work, Still composed nearly 200 works, including five symphonies, four ballets, eight operas, plus many chamber music compositions, choral works, and art songs. Still was a trailblazer whose achievements led the way for later Black classical musicians. The premiere of his Afro-American Symphony in 1931 by the Rochester Philharmonic marked the first time that a complete work by a Black composer was performed by a major American orchestra. When he conducted the Los Angeles Philharmonic in 1936 at the Hollywood Bowl, Still became the first Black American to conduct a major American orchestra in a performance of his own works. He became the first Black conductor of an orchestra in the South when he led the New Orleans Philharmonic in 1955, and the first Black American composer to have an opera performed by a major opera company or broadcast nationally on television.

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with the Brown University Orchestra, recorded during his tenure as Director of Orchestras and Chamber Music at Brown prior to joining the Stanford faculty in 2017. He has also recorded with the Iceland Symphony Orchestra. Phillips has performed with Itzhak Perlman, Dave Brubeck, Dizzy Gillespie, and many other celebrated classical, jazz, and pop stars, and is an accomplished pianist who has performed at the Piccolo Spoleto Festival, Carnegie Recital Hall, Lincoln Center, and Flower Piano in San Francisco. His awards include 1st Prize in the NOS International Conductors Course (Holland) and Wiener Meisterkurse Conductors Course (Vienna), eleven ASCAP Awards for Adventurous Programming of Contemporary Music, and numerous composition prizes and commissions. After studies at Eastman, Columbia, and the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music, Phillips was a repetitor and conductor in Germany at the Frankfurt Opera and Stadttheater Lüneburg. Upon his selection for the Exxon/Arts Endowment Conductors Program, he returned to the U.S., where he has held posts with the Greensboro Symphony, Greensboro Opera, Maryland Symphony, Savannah Symphony, Savannah Symphony Chorale, Rhode Island Philharmonic, and Pioneer Valley Symphony Orchestra and Chorus. His conducting teachers include Gunther Schuller, Kurt Masur, Seiji Ozawa, and Leonard Bernstein. Phillips’s book A Clockwork Counterpoint, a groundbreaking examination of composer-novelist Anthony Burgess’s music and its relationship to his writings, has been hailed in the press as “prodigiously researched” and “seamlessly fascinating.” His arrangement of Stravinsky’s Mavra, published by Boosey & Hawkes, has been performed internationally. Phillips is also a noted music theorist whose article “The Enigma of Variations: A Study of Stravinsky’s Final Work for Orchestra” was cited by musicologist Richard Taruskin as “the best exposition in print of Stravinsky’s serial methods.” For further information, visit www.paulsphillips.com.

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The story of Danzas de Panama, composed in 1948, begins with the Panamanian musician and political figure Narciso Garay (1876–1953), a violinist, composer, and ethnomusicologist who published a study of traditional songs and dances of Panama in 1930. Garay brought these Panamanian tunes to the attention of Elisabeth Waldo, a violinist from Tacoma, Washington, who was a member of the Los Angeles Philharmonic and later toured as a violin soloist throughout Central and South America, Cuba, and Mexico, where she took up residence. Waldo then brought them to Still’s attention, whose Danzas de Panama (arranged both for string quartet and string orchestra) are settings of these melodies. Amazingly, Elisabeth Waldo, who was born in 1918, is still alive at the age of 102!The Foreword to the published score of Danzas de Panama provides these descriptions of the individual movements:1. Tamborito: This dance is performed with percussive instruments and voice,

or with strings and percussion. The drum introduction is repeated at the end of the dance.

2. Mejorana: Usually in the major mode, the Mejorana is improvisatory in style. The instruments used are the Mejoraneras (guitars playing in counterpoint) and the Rabel (three-stringed violin).

3. Punto: This is a graceful dance in six-eight time, distinguished by the Zapateo (shoe-tapping) section and a Paseo (Promenade), which occur in the Mejorana as well.

4. Cumbia: Most sensuous of all the dances, and completely lacking in European elements. When it is danced in the streets, the women hold lighted candles in their upraised hands, while the men dance about them in an abandoned manner. A more refined Cumbia is adopted for other occasions.

According to the Foreword, “There is a distinct unity and a touch of Caribbean color in the four dances.” It identifies the first and last movements as based on African melodies from enslaved people in Panama, and the middle movements of mainly Spanish-Indian origin.

edWard elGar: Sospiri, Op. 70

In 1888, while on holiday in Yorkshire, Edward Elgar composed a salon piece for violin and piano for his future wife Caroline Alice Roberts. He called it Liebesgruß (Love’s Greeting) and upon his return home to London, presented it to Caroline with a proposal of marriage. Upon Schott’s acceptance of the work, it became Elgar’s first published composition. To improve sales, Schott replaced the work’s original title with Salut d’amour to broaden its international appeal. The strategy succeeded, with Salut d’amour, Op. 12, becoming one of Elgar’s most popular works.Years later, Elgar decided to compose Soupir d’Amour (Sigh of Love) as a companion piece to Salut d’amour, but changed the title to Sospiri: Adagio for String Orchestra, using the Italian word for sighs. Composed during the months prior to the start of World War I, the somber tone of Sospiri was perhaps a premonition of the dark times soon to come.

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Cellist stephen harrison is Senior Lecturer of Cello and Chamber Music at Stanford University, where he has served on the faculty since 1983. He is co-Artistic Director of the Ives Collective (formerly known as the Ives and Stanford String Quartets) and a core member of the San Francisco Contemporary Music Players, with whom he has played since 1985. Active in the Bay Area and beyond, Mr. Harrison is former principal cellist of the Chamber Symphony of San Francisco, the Opera Company of Boston, and the New England Chamber Orchestra. He has performed on National Public Radio, the BBC, German State Radio, and Netherlands State Radio. With the Ives/Stanford Quartets and the San Francisco Contemporary Music Players, he has toured internationally and recorded on the Music and Arts, Laurel, Delos, CRI, New Albion, and Newport Classics labels. Mr. Harrison has served on the faculties of the Pacific Music Festival, the Rocky Ridge Music Center, the Schlern International Music Festival, and the Orfeo Music Festival in Vipiteno, Italy. As principal cellist of the Mendocino Music Festival, he coaches Mendocino’s Emerging Artists. He has also been a frequent coach at the SoCal Chamber Music Workshop and performs annually at the Telluride Chamber Music Festival. He earned his degrees at Oberlin College and Boston University, where he received the Award for Distinction in Graduate Performance.

ABOUT THE CONDUCTOR

paul phillips is the Gretchen B. Kimball Director of Orchestral Studies and Associate Professor of Music at Stanford University, where he conducts the Stanford Symphony Orchestra, Stanford Philharmonia, Stanford Summer Symphony, and Stanford University Ragtime Ensemble. He teaches conducting, topics in musicology, and interdisciplinary courses related to music, including an IntroSem titled Harmonic Convergence: Music’s Intersections with Science, Mathematics, History, and Literature. During the pandemic, he designed and taught two new courses — Orchestra Online, featuring distinguished guest speakers from throughout the musical world, and Black Music Revealed, a Cardinal Course that examines the underappreciated contributions of Black composers and performers worldwide from the 18th century to the present — while collaborating with Professor Chris Chafe on the use of JackTrip technology for orchestral playing, with Stanford Philharmonia, SSO Strings, and SSO Winds rehearsing and presenting livestreamed performances this year. Phillips is a renowned conductor, composer, author, and pianist who has conducted over 70 orchestras, opera companies, choirs, and ballet troupes worldwide, including the San Francisco Symphony, Dallas Symphony, Detroit Symphony, Boston Academy of Music, Paul Taylor Dance Company, and Netherlands Radio Chamber Orchestra and Chamber Choir. His five recordings for Naxos include three discs of William Perry’s music — two with the RTÉ National Symphony Orchestra (Ireland) and one with the Slovak Philharmonic Orchestra — plus Manhattan Intermezzo and Anthony Burgess: Orchestral Music

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Sospiri is scored for strings and harp (or piano), with an optional part for harmonium (or organ) ad libitum. Elgar dedicated the work to his close friend and confidant W.H. (Billy) Reed, concertmaster of the London Symphony Orchestra, which premiered Sospiri, conducted by Sir Henry Wood, on 15 August 1914 at Queen’s Hall, London.

antonio ViValdi: Concerto for Two Violoncelli in G Major

The great Baroque composer Antonio Vivaldi spent most of his life in Venice, his birthplace, where he led the music ensemble of the Ospedale della Pietà, a home for abandoned girls. Vivaldi, an ordained Roman Catholic priest, was a violin virtuoso, teacher, and impresario who wrote many of his compositions, including this concerto, for the Ospedale’s all-female orchestra, which he led for most of the years between 1703 and 1740.The Concerto in G minor, RV 531, is Vivaldi’s only extant concerto for two violoncellos. It consists of three movements — fast outer movements (Allegro) flanking a slow middle movement (Largo) — all in G minor. The solo celli interact in varied ways — sometimes playing in harmony, sometimes in canon or counterpoint, and sometimes in succession, trading off presentations of the melody. The orchestral strings add lively tutti sections in the outer movements but do not play during the Largo, which consists solely of the two solo celli accompanied by basso continuo: one cello, one double bass, and harpsichord.

Antonín Dvořák: Serenade in E Major, Op. 22

Antonín Dvořák composed his Serenade for Strings in E Major, Op. 22, during a particularly fruitful period of his life. At age 34, newly married and with the recent birth of the first of nine children, Dvořák was in the prime of life. Having received a generous commission in Vienna that gave him the freedom to devote his time to composing, he wrote the Serenade swiftly, in twelve days, from 3 to 14 May 1875. That same year, he composed his Symphony No. 5, String Quintet No. 2, Piano Trio No. 1, the opera Vanda, and Moravian Duets. The Serenade for Strings is a sunny work in five movements consisting of a cantabile Moderato, lyrical Waltz (Tempo di Valse), high spirited Scherzo (Vivace), expressive Larghetto, and exuberant Finale (Allegro vivace). It was premiered in Prague on 10 December 1876 by the combined orchestras of the Czech and German theatres conducted by Adolf Čech. It was published in 1877 in the composer’s piano duet arrangement, with publication of the full score following in 1879 by Bote and Bock, Berlin.

— Paul Phillips © 2021

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ABOUT THE SOLOISTS

For over three decades, cellist Christopher Costanza has enjoyed a varied and exciting career as a soloist, chamber musician, and teacher. A winner of the Young Concert Artists International Auditions and recipient of a prestigious Solo Recitalists Grant from the National Endowment for the Arts, Mr. Costanza has performed to wide critical acclaim in nearly every state in the U.S., in Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and the Caribbean, and throughout Europe, Asia, and South America. His summer festival appearances include the Marlboro, Yellow Barn, Santa Fe, Taos, Chamber Music Northwest, Seattle, Bay Chamber Concerts, Ottawa, and Bravo! Vail Valley festivals. Mr. Costanza is a graduate of the New England Conservatory of Music, where he studied cello with Laurence Lesser, David Wells, and Bernard Greenhouse, and chamber music with Eugene Lehner, Louis Krasner, and Leonard Shure. Mr. Costanza joined the St. Lawrence String Quartet (SLSQ) in 2003 and tours and records extensively with that ensemble, performing over 100 concerts annually throughout the world. As a member of the SLSQ, he is an Artist in Residence at Stanford, where he teaches cello and chamber music and performs a wide variety of formal and informal concerts each season, from the stages of the University’s concert halls to student dormitories and lecture halls. A strong proponent of contemporary music, Mr. Costanza has worked with such notable composers as John Adams, Jonathan Berger, Osvaldo Golijov, Mark Applebaum, Pierre Boulez, George Tsontakis, Roberto Sierra, R. Murray Schafer, William Bolcom, John Corigliano, and Bright Sheng. As a student, he had the honor of studying Olivier Messiaen’s Quartet for the End of Time under the guidance of the composer. Mr. Costanza is privileged to perform on an early 18th-century Venetian cello, part of the Harry R. Lange Historical Collection of Musical Instruments and Bows at Stanford. He is frequently heard on radio broadcasts, including National Public Radio, the CBC in Canada, and various European broadcasting networks. His discography includes chamber music and solo recordings on the Nonesuch, EMI/Angel, Naxos, Innova, Albany, Summit, and ArtistShare labels. In 2006, he received a Grammy nomination for his recording of chamber works for winds and strings by Mozart. Several SLSQ recordings on EMI have been nominated for Juno awards, and in August 2019, the SLSQ released its latest recording, of all six Op. 20 String Quartets of Haydn, in three formats: CDs, online streaming platforms, and limited-edition vinyl LPs. Mr. Costanza’s recording of the Six Suites for Solo Cello by J.S. Bach, recorded at the Banff Centre in 2012, are available for streaming on his recently-launched website, costanzacello.com. In addition to his varied musical interests, Mr. Costanza is an avid long-distance runner and hiker. A self-described train enthusiast, he enjoys riding and exploring the passenger railways of the world. He is fascinated by architecture and seeks out innovative architectural offerings of each city he visits on tour. At home in California, he is passionate about cooking, focusing his attention on new and creative dishes which take advantage of the abundance of remarkable organic local produce.

6

Sospiri is scored for strings and harp (or piano), with an optional part for harmonium (or organ) ad libitum. Elgar dedicated the work to his close friend and confidant W.H. (Billy) Reed, concertmaster of the London Symphony Orchestra, which premiered Sospiri, conducted by Sir Henry Wood, on 15 August 1914 at Queen’s Hall, London.

antonio ViValdi: Concerto for Two Violoncelli in G Major

The great Baroque composer Antonio Vivaldi spent most of his life in Venice, his birthplace, where he led the music ensemble of the Ospedale della Pietà, a home for abandoned girls. Vivaldi, an ordained Roman Catholic priest, was a violin virtuoso, teacher, and impresario who wrote many of his compositions, including this concerto, for the Ospedale’s all-female orchestra, which he led for most of the years between 1703 and 1740.The Concerto in G minor, RV 531, is Vivaldi’s only extant concerto for two violoncellos. It consists of three movements — fast outer movements (Allegro) flanking a slow middle movement (Largo) — all in G minor. The solo celli interact in varied ways — sometimes playing in harmony, sometimes in canon or counterpoint, and sometimes in succession, trading off presentations of the melody. The orchestral strings add lively tutti sections in the outer movements but do not play during the Largo, which consists solely of the two solo celli accompanied by basso continuo: one cello, one double bass, and harpsichord.

Antonín Dvořák: Serenade in E Major, Op. 22

Antonín Dvořák composed his Serenade for Strings in E Major, Op. 22, during a particularly fruitful period of his life. At age 34, newly married and with the recent birth of the first of nine children, Dvořák was in the prime of life. Having received a generous commission in Vienna that gave him the freedom to devote his time to composing, he wrote the Serenade swiftly, in twelve days, from 3 to 14 May 1875. That same year, he composed his Symphony No. 5, String Quintet No. 2, Piano Trio No. 1, the opera Vanda, and Moravian Duets. The Serenade for Strings is a sunny work in five movements consisting of a cantabile Moderato, lyrical Waltz (Tempo di Valse), high spirited Scherzo (Vivace), expressive Larghetto, and exuberant Finale (Allegro vivace). It was premiered in Prague on 10 December 1876 by the combined orchestras of the Czech and German theatres conducted by Adolf Čech. It was published in 1877 in the composer’s piano duet arrangement, with publication of the full score following in 1879 by Bote and Bock, Berlin.

— Paul Phillips © 2021

7

ABOUT THE SOLOISTS

For over three decades, cellist Christopher Costanza has enjoyed a varied and exciting career as a soloist, chamber musician, and teacher. A winner of the Young Concert Artists International Auditions and recipient of a prestigious Solo Recitalists Grant from the National Endowment for the Arts, Mr. Costanza has performed to wide critical acclaim in nearly every state in the U.S., in Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and the Caribbean, and throughout Europe, Asia, and South America. His summer festival appearances include the Marlboro, Yellow Barn, Santa Fe, Taos, Chamber Music Northwest, Seattle, Bay Chamber Concerts, Ottawa, and Bravo! Vail Valley festivals. Mr. Costanza is a graduate of the New England Conservatory of Music, where he studied cello with Laurence Lesser, David Wells, and Bernard Greenhouse, and chamber music with Eugene Lehner, Louis Krasner, and Leonard Shure. Mr. Costanza joined the St. Lawrence String Quartet (SLSQ) in 2003 and tours and records extensively with that ensemble, performing over 100 concerts annually throughout the world. As a member of the SLSQ, he is an Artist in Residence at Stanford, where he teaches cello and chamber music and performs a wide variety of formal and informal concerts each season, from the stages of the University’s concert halls to student dormitories and lecture halls. A strong proponent of contemporary music, Mr. Costanza has worked with such notable composers as John Adams, Jonathan Berger, Osvaldo Golijov, Mark Applebaum, Pierre Boulez, George Tsontakis, Roberto Sierra, R. Murray Schafer, William Bolcom, John Corigliano, and Bright Sheng. As a student, he had the honor of studying Olivier Messiaen’s Quartet for the End of Time under the guidance of the composer. Mr. Costanza is privileged to perform on an early 18th-century Venetian cello, part of the Harry R. Lange Historical Collection of Musical Instruments and Bows at Stanford. He is frequently heard on radio broadcasts, including National Public Radio, the CBC in Canada, and various European broadcasting networks. His discography includes chamber music and solo recordings on the Nonesuch, EMI/Angel, Naxos, Innova, Albany, Summit, and ArtistShare labels. In 2006, he received a Grammy nomination for his recording of chamber works for winds and strings by Mozart. Several SLSQ recordings on EMI have been nominated for Juno awards, and in August 2019, the SLSQ released its latest recording, of all six Op. 20 String Quartets of Haydn, in three formats: CDs, online streaming platforms, and limited-edition vinyl LPs. Mr. Costanza’s recording of the Six Suites for Solo Cello by J.S. Bach, recorded at the Banff Centre in 2012, are available for streaming on his recently-launched website, costanzacello.com. In addition to his varied musical interests, Mr. Costanza is an avid long-distance runner and hiker. A self-described train enthusiast, he enjoys riding and exploring the passenger railways of the world. He is fascinated by architecture and seeks out innovative architectural offerings of each city he visits on tour. At home in California, he is passionate about cooking, focusing his attention on new and creative dishes which take advantage of the abundance of remarkable organic local produce.

5

The story of Danzas de Panama, composed in 1948, begins with the Panamanian musician and political figure Narciso Garay (1876–1953), a violinist, composer, and ethnomusicologist who published a study of traditional songs and dances of Panama in 1930. Garay brought these Panamanian tunes to the attention of Elisabeth Waldo, a violinist from Tacoma, Washington, who was a member of the Los Angeles Philharmonic and later toured as a violin soloist throughout Central and South America, Cuba, and Mexico, where she took up residence. Waldo then brought them to Still’s attention, whose Danzas de Panama (arranged both for string quartet and string orchestra) are settings of these melodies. Amazingly, Elisabeth Waldo, who was born in 1918, is still alive at the age of 102!The Foreword to the published score of Danzas de Panama provides these descriptions of the individual movements:1. Tamborito: This dance is performed with percussive instruments and voice,

or with strings and percussion. The drum introduction is repeated at the end of the dance.

2. Mejorana: Usually in the major mode, the Mejorana is improvisatory in style. The instruments used are the Mejoraneras (guitars playing in counterpoint) and the Rabel (three-stringed violin).

3. Punto: This is a graceful dance in six-eight time, distinguished by the Zapateo (shoe-tapping) section and a Paseo (Promenade), which occur in the Mejorana as well.

4. Cumbia: Most sensuous of all the dances, and completely lacking in European elements. When it is danced in the streets, the women hold lighted candles in their upraised hands, while the men dance about them in an abandoned manner. A more refined Cumbia is adopted for other occasions.

According to the Foreword, “There is a distinct unity and a touch of Caribbean color in the four dances.” It identifies the first and last movements as based on African melodies from enslaved people in Panama, and the middle movements of mainly Spanish-Indian origin.

edWard elGar: Sospiri, Op. 70

In 1888, while on holiday in Yorkshire, Edward Elgar composed a salon piece for violin and piano for his future wife Caroline Alice Roberts. He called it Liebesgruß (Love’s Greeting) and upon his return home to London, presented it to Caroline with a proposal of marriage. Upon Schott’s acceptance of the work, it became Elgar’s first published composition. To improve sales, Schott replaced the work’s original title with Salut d’amour to broaden its international appeal. The strategy succeeded, with Salut d’amour, Op. 12, becoming one of Elgar’s most popular works.Years later, Elgar decided to compose Soupir d’Amour (Sigh of Love) as a companion piece to Salut d’amour, but changed the title to Sospiri: Adagio for String Orchestra, using the Italian word for sighs. Composed during the months prior to the start of World War I, the somber tone of Sospiri was perhaps a premonition of the dark times soon to come.

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Cellist stephen harrison is Senior Lecturer of Cello and Chamber Music at Stanford University, where he has served on the faculty since 1983. He is co-Artistic Director of the Ives Collective (formerly known as the Ives and Stanford String Quartets) and a core member of the San Francisco Contemporary Music Players, with whom he has played since 1985. Active in the Bay Area and beyond, Mr. Harrison is former principal cellist of the Chamber Symphony of San Francisco, the Opera Company of Boston, and the New England Chamber Orchestra. He has performed on National Public Radio, the BBC, German State Radio, and Netherlands State Radio. With the Ives/Stanford Quartets and the San Francisco Contemporary Music Players, he has toured internationally and recorded on the Music and Arts, Laurel, Delos, CRI, New Albion, and Newport Classics labels. Mr. Harrison has served on the faculties of the Pacific Music Festival, the Rocky Ridge Music Center, the Schlern International Music Festival, and the Orfeo Music Festival in Vipiteno, Italy. As principal cellist of the Mendocino Music Festival, he coaches Mendocino’s Emerging Artists. He has also been a frequent coach at the SoCal Chamber Music Workshop and performs annually at the Telluride Chamber Music Festival. He earned his degrees at Oberlin College and Boston University, where he received the Award for Distinction in Graduate Performance.

ABOUT THE CONDUCTOR

paul phillips is the Gretchen B. Kimball Director of Orchestral Studies and Associate Professor of Music at Stanford University, where he conducts the Stanford Symphony Orchestra, Stanford Philharmonia, Stanford Summer Symphony, and Stanford University Ragtime Ensemble. He teaches conducting, topics in musicology, and interdisciplinary courses related to music, including an IntroSem titled Harmonic Convergence: Music’s Intersections with Science, Mathematics, History, and Literature. During the pandemic, he designed and taught two new courses — Orchestra Online, featuring distinguished guest speakers from throughout the musical world, and Black Music Revealed, a Cardinal Course that examines the underappreciated contributions of Black composers and performers worldwide from the 18th century to the present — while collaborating with Professor Chris Chafe on the use of JackTrip technology for orchestral playing, with Stanford Philharmonia, SSO Strings, and SSO Winds rehearsing and presenting livestreamed performances this year. Phillips is a renowned conductor, composer, author, and pianist who has conducted over 70 orchestras, opera companies, choirs, and ballet troupes worldwide, including the San Francisco Symphony, Dallas Symphony, Detroit Symphony, Boston Academy of Music, Paul Taylor Dance Company, and Netherlands Radio Chamber Orchestra and Chamber Choir. His five recordings for Naxos include three discs of William Perry’s music — two with the RTÉ National Symphony Orchestra (Ireland) and one with the Slovak Philharmonic Orchestra — plus Manhattan Intermezzo and Anthony Burgess: Orchestral Music

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William Grant still: Danzas de Panama

Like Florence Price, William Grant Still grew up in Little Rock, Arkansas, having been brought there at the age of three months from Woodville, Mississippi, by his mother Carrie shortly after his father’s untimely death. Still attended Union School, a combined elementary and high school for Black children that Florence Price, eight years his senior, had also attended. Both were taught by Charlotte Andrews Stephens, a remarkable educator whose teaching career in Little Rock spanned 70 consecutive years!When Still was nine, his mother married Charles B. Shepperson, whom Still described as “a splendid stepfather” in his autobiographical typescript “Personal Notes” (published in William Grant Still: A Study in Contradictions by Catherine Parsons Smith). Shepperson shared his love of music with Still, buying records that they’d listen to together, taking him to performances, and encouraging his musical education. After starting violin lessons at age 15, Still went on teach himself clarinet, saxophone, viola, and double bass, and became a professional cellist and oboist.Still attended Wilberforce University and the Oberlin Conservatory of Music, and as a young man worked as an arranger for W.C. Handy’s publishing company in New York. In 1921, he played oboe in the pit orchestra of Shuffle Along, the ground-breaking all-Black Broadway musical sensation by Noble Sissle and Eubie Blake. After the show’s lengthy run of over 500 performances in New York, it continued in Boston, where Still sought out composition lessons from George Chadwick, who’d previously taught Florence Price. Recognizing Still’s enormous talent, Chadwick took him on as a private student and refused payment for lessons. Still later studied with the French modernist composer Edgard Varèse.William Grant Still’s Afro-American Symphony, composed in 1930, enjoyed vast popularity and was the most widely performed symphony by an American composer until 1950. In 1934, Still boldly decided to leave New York, where he’d lived for fifteen years during the heyday of the Harlem Renaissance, and moved to Los Angeles, where he spent the rest of his life. In California, Still arranged music for films (including Pennies from Heaven and Lost Horizon) and wrote music for radio and television shows that included Gunsmoke and Perry Mason. Apart from his commercial work, Still composed nearly 200 works, including five symphonies, four ballets, eight operas, plus many chamber music compositions, choral works, and art songs. Still was a trailblazer whose achievements led the way for later Black classical musicians. The premiere of his Afro-American Symphony in 1931 by the Rochester Philharmonic marked the first time that a complete work by a Black composer was performed by a major American orchestra. When he conducted the Los Angeles Philharmonic in 1936 at the Hollywood Bowl, Still became the first Black American to conduct a major American orchestra in a performance of his own works. He became the first Black conductor of an orchestra in the South when he led the New Orleans Philharmonic in 1955, and the first Black American composer to have an opera performed by a major opera company or broadcast nationally on television.

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with the Brown University Orchestra, recorded during his tenure as Director of Orchestras and Chamber Music at Brown prior to joining the Stanford faculty in 2017. He has also recorded with the Iceland Symphony Orchestra. Phillips has performed with Itzhak Perlman, Dave Brubeck, Dizzy Gillespie, and many other celebrated classical, jazz, and pop stars, and is an accomplished pianist who has performed at the Piccolo Spoleto Festival, Carnegie Recital Hall, Lincoln Center, and Flower Piano in San Francisco. His awards include 1st Prize in the NOS International Conductors Course (Holland) and Wiener Meisterkurse Conductors Course (Vienna), eleven ASCAP Awards for Adventurous Programming of Contemporary Music, and numerous composition prizes and commissions. After studies at Eastman, Columbia, and the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music, Phillips was a repetitor and conductor in Germany at the Frankfurt Opera and Stadttheater Lüneburg. Upon his selection for the Exxon/Arts Endowment Conductors Program, he returned to the U.S., where he has held posts with the Greensboro Symphony, Greensboro Opera, Maryland Symphony, Savannah Symphony, Savannah Symphony Chorale, Rhode Island Philharmonic, and Pioneer Valley Symphony Orchestra and Chorus. His conducting teachers include Gunther Schuller, Kurt Masur, Seiji Ozawa, and Leonard Bernstein. Phillips’s book A Clockwork Counterpoint, a groundbreaking examination of composer-novelist Anthony Burgess’s music and its relationship to his writings, has been hailed in the press as “prodigiously researched” and “seamlessly fascinating.” His arrangement of Stravinsky’s Mavra, published by Boosey & Hawkes, has been performed internationally. Phillips is also a noted music theorist whose article “The Enigma of Variations: A Study of Stravinsky’s Final Work for Orchestra” was cited by musicologist Richard Taruskin as “the best exposition in print of Stravinsky’s serial methods.” For further information, visit www.paulsphillips.com.

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PROGRAM NOTES

FlorenCe priCe: Adoration The long overdue recognition of Black composers now taking place in the United States has directed belated attention to the music of William Grant Still, William Dawson, Hall Johnson, Ulysses Kay, Adolphus Hailstork, Margaret Bonds, and many others. One of the most remarkable of these composers is Florence Price, whose symphonies, concertos, and other works are being programmed much more widely than ever before. The publication in 2020 of The Heart of a Woman: The Life and Music of Florence B. Price by Rae Linda Brown (edited by Guthrie P. Ramsey, Jr.) by the University of Illinois Press is a major step forward in recognizing the talent and achievements of this pioneering composer.Florence Beatrice Smith was born in Little Rock, Arkansas, in 1887, to a family that belonged, in Rae Linda Brown’s words, “to the small, but significant, black upper class.” Her mother was a businesswoman and well-trained singer and pianist, while her father was Little Rock’s only African American dentist. Florence was a gifted student who gave her first piano performance at the age of four, had her first composition published at the age of 11, and graduated from high school as valedictorian at the age of 14! At the age of 16, she enrolled at the New England Conservatory of Music, where she majored in piano and organ. She studied composition with George Chadwick, director of the conservatory and prominent Boston composer. While composing her first symphony, “she began to explore her interest in the use of Negro folk materials in large-scale compositions”, according to Rae Linda Brown. Florence graduated in 1906 with honors, an artist diploma in organ, and a teaching certificate.In 1912, she married Thomas J. Price, a successful civil rights attorney, and for the next 15 years, focused primarily on raising a family and giving music lessons. She wrote teaching pieces for piano, and for violin with piano accompaniments, but no large-scale compositions. As racial oppression grew during the Jim Crow era, life in Little Rock became increasingly intolerable for the Price family. Following a brutal lynching there in 1927, the Prices moved to Chicago, where Florence’s creative activity flourished. In 1932, her Symphony in E Minor won First Prize in the Wanamaker Competition, leading to its premiere by the Chicago Symphony Orchestra — the first composition by a Black woman to be performed by a major orchestra. For the remaining 20 years of her life, Florence Price thrived as a composer and performer, with Marian Anderson, Roland Hayes, and Harry Burleigh and other leading vocalists performing her songs, and conductors such as Frederick Stock of the Chicago Symphony and Sir John Barbirolli of the Halle Orchestra in Manchester, England, programming her music. Adoration, a heartfelt composition that Florence Price composed for organ in 1951, has been arranged both for orchestral and choral ensembles. This arrangement was written last year by Jonathan Girard, Director of Orchestras at the University of British Columbia School of Music.

ABOUT THE ENSEMBLE

Orchestral activity at Stanford began in 1891, the year that Stanford University was founded, with the formation of an ensemble that eventually became the Stanford Symphony Orchestra. stanFord philharmonia is a chamber orchestra that performs concerts in Bing Concert Hall and other Bay Area venues. Last month, Stanford Philharmonia resumed live weekly rehearsals in Bing on Tuesday evenings. The Stanford Symphony Orchestra currently comprises two ensembles, SSO Strings and SSO Winds, each with about 15 players. SSO Strings and SSO Winds rehearse online on Monday and Thursday evenings using JackTrip and will present livestreamed performances on 27 May and 3 June, respectively.Stanford Philharmonia performs repertoire from the Baroque to the present, frequently with outstanding student and faculty soloists as well as renowned visiting artists. Recent performances have included concertos with flutist Carol Wincenc, Stanford faculty artists Owen Dalby and Robin Sharp, and winners of the annual Concerto Competition; a live performance of John Corigliano’s score for the film The Red Violin in collaboration with Stanford Live; and The Brilliance of Bach at the Fox Theater in Redwood City as part of the Stanford in Redwood City Speaker Series. Stanford Philharmonia and the Stanford Symphony Orchestra are supported by the Department of Music and the Associated Students of Stanford University (ASSU). Membership is open to all Stanford undergraduate and graduate students, faculty, staff, and members of the community. Anyone interested in auditioning for the Stanford Philharmonia, Stanford Symphony Orchestra, or Stanford Summer Symphony should contact Orchestra Administrator Adriana Ramírez Mirabal at orchestra@stanford.edu.For further information, visit orchestra.stanford.edu.

We are grateful for support from our community. If you are interested in learning more about supporting the Stanford Symphony Orchestra or Stanford Philharmonia, please contact Maude Brezinski, Senior Director of Development for the Arts, at Maudeb@stanford.edu or (650) 723-0044.

PROGRAM

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Adoration Florence Price (1887–1953) Arr. Jonathan Girard

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Danzas de Panama William Grant Still I. Tamborito. Moderato (1895–1978) II. Mejorana y Socavon. Allegro moderato III. Punto. Allegretto con grazia IV. Cumbia y Congo. Allegro con moto

I I I

Sospiri, Op. 70 Edward Elgar (1857–1934)

IV

Concerto for Two Violoncelli in G Major, RV 531 Antonio Vivaldi I. Allegro (1678–1741) II. Largo III. Allegro

Christopher Costanza and stephen harrison violoncello soloists

V

Serenade in E Major, Op. 22 Antonín Dvořák I. Moderato (1841–1904) II. Tempo di Valse III. Scherzo. Vivace IV. Larghetto V. Finale. Allegro vivace

Stanford Philharmonia gratefully acknowledges Virginia Pope Herbert and Zack Leuchars for their production assistance with the livestreamed and outdoor performances, and the Department of Music and ASSU for

their generous support of Stanford’s orchestral program.

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STANFORD PHILHARMONIApaul phillips, Music Director and Conductor

Violin i

Tony Kim ‘21, concertmaster Major in Computer Science, M.S. in Computer Science

Robert Hu ’22 Major in Computer Science, Minor in Music

Hannah Walton ’22 Major in English, Minor in Human Biology

Lina Fowler ’22 Majors in Product Design and Political Science

Laurie Kost ’08 Clinical Research Manager, Stanford University

Ethan Chi ‘22 Majors in Computer Science and Music, M.S. in Computer Science

Joe Foley, Ph.D. ’13 Research engineer, Stanford School of Medicine

Violin ii

Richard Cheung ’24, principal Major in Computer Science, Minor in Music

Meilinda Sun ’22 Major in Computer Science

Carling Hank ’21 Major in Economics

Daphne Guo Master’s student in Chemistry, 2nd year

Hannah Mueller ’21 Major in History, Minor in Spanish

Andre Turati ’21 Major in Electrical Engineering, M.S. in Computer Science

Neil Wary ’22 Major in Human Biology, Minor in Music, M.S. in Epidemiology and Clinical Research

Viola

Alex Hwang, principal Ph.D. student in Applied Physics, 1st year

Ben Parks Ph.D. student in Computer Science, 4th year

Martin Altenburg ’21 Major in Electrical Engineering, M.S. in Computer Science

Carson Conley ’21 Major in Economics

Stanford Philharmonia Paul Phillips music director and conductor

Christopher Costanza Stephen Harrison violoncello soloists

LIVESTREAM FROM BING CONCERT HALL TUESDAY, 18 MAY 2021 8:00 P.M. CONCERT ON MEYER GREEN WEDNESDAY, 19 MAY 2021 6:00 P.M.

STANFORD UNIVERSITY DEPARTMENT OF MUSIC

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Violoncello

Erik Roise ‘21, principal Major in Mechanical Engineering, Minor in Music, M.S. in Mechanical Engineering

Kevin Jung ’22 Major in Biology

Grace Mueller ’21 Major in Biology, Minor in History

Contrabass

Bryant Huang ‘21, principal Major in Architectural Design, Minor in Music

Griffin Glenn Ph.D. student in Applied Physics, 2nd year

Grant Parker Associate Professor and Chair, Department of Classics

Harp

Vivian Tang ’22 Majors in Economics and Classics

Keyboard

Jason Guo ’24 Major in Psychology, Minor in Music