James R. Cassidy, Music Director

2020-21 Education Series

The Education Series is made possible with support from

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The Maxwell C. Weaver Foundation

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James R. Cassidy, Music Director

9:15 and 10:30 A.M., Tuesday James Cassidy conductorOctober 20, 2020 Miriam K. Smith, cello7 Hills ChurchFlorence, Ky.

“Back in My Day”Music for CeremoniesWater Music George Frideric Handel

“Hornpipe”Private PatronageSymphony Nr. 45, “Farewell” Franz Josef Haydn

IV. AdagioThe Independent ComposerSymphony Nr. 5 Ludwig van Beethoven

I. Allegro con brioThe Philosopher ComposerLohengrin Richard Wagner

Prelude to Act IIIThe International ComposerConcerto for Violin and Orchestra Antonin Dvorak

Finale: Allegro moderatoMiriam K. Smith

The Nationalist ComposerThe Firebird Finale Igor StravinskyThe Populist Composer

Rodeo Aaron Copland“Hoe-Down”

The Composer and Technology“Main Title” from Star Wars John Williams

The Kentucky Symphony Orchestra’s Education Outreach programs are made possible by the generous support of the Charles H. Dater Foundation, the R.C.Durr Foundation and the

Maxwell C. Weaver Foundation.The KSO is supported by the generosity of tens of thousands of contributors

to the ArtsWave Community Campaign.

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TH E KEN T U C KY SY M P H O N Y ORC H ES T RA

‘BACK IN MY DAY’

The Kentucky SymphonyOrchestra uses a system of rotating string seating.Section players after principalsare listed in alphabetical order.

First ViolinsManami White,

concertmistressThe Gloria Goering Memorial Chair

Jonathan HwangJacqueline FennellJacqueline KitzmillerMaggie Niekamp

Second ViolinsEvan Hurley, acting principalLuke CoanLesley CissellJude Jones

ViolasCristian Diaz, acting principalDarryl ManleyTeri Abler

’CellosTom Guth, principal

The Mountjoy ChiltonMedley LLP Chair

Elizabeth LeeJonathan Lee

BassBrenton Carter,

acting principalNicholas Blackburn

FlutesJennifer King, principal

The Paul & Geneva Houston Chair

Annie GordonJinhee Hand

OboesBonnie Farr, acting principalEmily Van Niman

ClarinetsChristine Todey, principal Rachael Hendricks

BassoonsJohn Robken, acting principalZach Elmore

French HornsMichelle Hembree, principal

The Don & Sue Corken Chair

Frank CarubbaLinda Glover

TrumpetsBrian Buerkle, principalJenna VeverkaStephen Wadsack

TrombonesAustin Motley, acting

principalJett WalkerRuss Zokiates

TubaMatthew Gray

PercussionMatt Hawkins, principal

The Alice Sparks ChairDaniel FrankBrian MaloneWilliam Mullen

HarpJoseph Rebman

KeyboardKimberly Russ

The Schultz MarketingCommunications Chair

Miriam K. SmithMiriam K. Smith made her orchestral debut at age 8 play-ing the Haydn Cello Concerto No. 1 in C Major with theSeven Hills Sinfonietta. Recent engagements have in-cluded her debut with the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestraand Louisville Orchestra, Blue Ash Montgomery Sym-phony Orchestra, the Hilton Head Symphony Orchestraand the Wright State Chamber Orchestra.

Miriam opened the Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra’s 2019Masterworks Series performing the Saint-Saëns Cello Con-certo No. 1 in A Minor. She has twice performed in recitalat Carnegie Hall as 1st place winner of American ProtégéInternational and American Fine Arts Festival competi-

tions, as well as the Cleveland Orchestra’s Rainbow concertsIn 2018 Miriam performed solo recitals in Cincinnati and Chicago, and for an

outdoor crowd of 40,000+ with the Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra’s “Concerts onthe Square.” That same year she recieved a Global Music Award as an emergingartist for her recording titled – Ignite!

Ms. Smith makes her KSO debut with these concerts and will perform the entire Dvorak Cello Concerto with the KSO on March 6, 2021. Miriam has studied with Sarah Kim and Alan Rafferty since she began playing the cello at age4. She has also appeared in masterclasses with world renowned cellists. Visit herwebsite www.miriamksmith.com for more details.

The Kentucky Symphony OrchestraThe Kentucky Symphony Orchestra was founded by its current music director,

James R. Cassidy, in 1992. The orchestra comprises professionsal freelance musicianswho also perform with such ensembles as the symphonies of Cincinnati, Columbus,Dayton (Ohio), Lexington, Louisville, and West Virginia, among others. The KSO’smission has always been to make symphonic music attractive, accessible, and afford-able to the region’s residents. To that end, the KSO offers free education concerts (liketoday’s), a free summer series in Devou Park, and an inexpensive subscription series,which features internationally renowned artists and other innovative elements. ■

OCTOBER PROFILE

Water MusicGeorge Frideric Handel was born

Feb. 23, 1685, in Halle, Germany. Hedied April 14, 1759, in London.

U nlike his contemporary, JohannSebastian Bach, Handel was inter-

nationally renowned in his own lifetime.He incorporated different musical traitsfrom the German, French and Italianschools of composition into his music.These qualities matured in England whereHandel adopted the choral tradition anddeveloped the oratorio (The Messiah isthe most famous of those).

At age 25 Handel was appointedmusic director to the court of Hanover(Germany). Shortly thereafter he took along leave of absence to visit England andstayed. When the Elector of Hanover wasproclaimed King George I of England in1714, Handel had to make it up to his for-mer employer. He surprised the King withthree suites of music to accompany a boatride down the Thames River called WaterMusic. The Hornpipe — a dance — isprobably the most recognized movement.It is heard frequently at weddings and intelevision commercials.

‘Farewell’ SymphonyFranz Joseph Haydn was born

March 31, 1732, in Rihrau, Austria. Hedied May 31, 1809, in Vienna. The Sym-phony Nr. 45 was composed in Novem-ber, 1772.

It was not just heads of state and thechurch that employed musicians in the

17th and 18th centuries. Many aristocratsof various ranks had their own orchestrastoo. The Esterházy family had a big one,and Haydn, beginning in 1761, was re-sponsible for arranging performances, in-cluding writing music, at the prince’swhim—nearly every day.

Prince Nicolaus rebuilt his favorite

hunting lodge into his summer palace (Es-terháza) in 1762. By 1766 the court wasspending half its year at the fairy-tale cas-tle. Problems arose in 1772. The princedecreed that his servants’ families had toremain through the summer at the winterpalace in Eisenstadt. This while PrinceNicolaus spent ever more time at Ester-háza. By November, the staff was growingdesperate, and they pleaded with Haydnto intercede.

Haydn’s answer was the SymphonyNr. 45. The tumultuous finale is inter-rupted by a serene Adagio, and as themusic grows ever peaceful, players dropout one by one until only two violins re-main. At the first performance, the musi-cians snuffed their candles and walked outwhen their parts ended, leaving PrinceNicolaus in a dark, empty hall. He got thehint and ordered the court back to Eisen-stadt the next day.

Symphony No. 5Ludwig van Beethoven was born

Dec. 13, 1770, in Bonn, Germany. Hedied March 26, 1827, in Vienna. The fifthsymphony was begun in 1807 and pre-miered in 1808.

B elieve it or not, Beethoven’s fifthsymphony was a failure at its pre-

miere.Why? First, Vienna was then under

occupation by Napoleon’s armies, andmusic took a back seat to more pragmaticconcerns. The occupation also meantBeethoven’s aristocratic connections heldlittle of their former influence. Second,there were no standing orchestras outsidethe nobility, and it was very difficult to as-semble a decent pick-up group. And so thepremiere, predictably, was bad.

Though familiarity has dulled our per-spective, Beethoven’s fifth symphony isremarkable and revolutionary music. Theaverage Viennese concert-goer would

OCTOBER PROGRAM NOTES

have been startled by what he or sheheard. From their standpoint, the openingtheme is no theme, but just an obsessiverhythm. They are right, but Beethoven’sinnovation was to show all the emotionalpossibilities of that germ, and to developthat motive so thoroughly that could buildan entire symphony on it.

Lohengrin PreludeRichard Wagner was born May 22,

1813, in Leipzig. He died Feb. 13, 1883,in Venice.

W hen Mark Twain visited Germany,he found two favorite targets for

his wit: compound German nouns andRichard Wagner. The two overlap withGesamtkunstwerk.

Germany wasn’t united until the mid-dle of the 19th century, and Wagner was atthe forefront of artists who strove to ex-press their national pride by creating dis-tinctly German music. His vision was aseamless blend of visual art, drama, poetry,and music — a complete (Gesamt) art(kunst) work (werk). His greatest effort isDer Ring des Nibelungen, a 19-hour, four-opera saga that retells ancient Norse myths.

Most of Wagner’s other operas alsotake their subjects from episodes and peo-ple from Germanic history, including po-etry and song contests, medieval castles,and stories about knights.

One of them, Lohengrin, tells about amysterious knight who arrives in townand agrees to marry Elsa, the daughter ofthe local nobleman, on the condition thatshe never ask his name. The Prelude toAct III depicts the bustle around the castleas the servants prepare for the ceremony.In the full opera, this energetic piece leadsdirectly to a famous bridal chorus.

Cello ConcertoAntonin Dvorák was born in

Nelahozeves, Bohemia, on September 8,1841. He died May 1, 1904, in Prague

In 1892, Antonini Dvorák moved to theU.S. to accept a directorship at the Na-

tional Conservatory of Music, which of-fered a substantial salary and the chanceto program his own works. He spent thenext two-and-a-half years teaching com-posing and performing here. Some ofDvorak’s most famous works — The NewWorld Symphony and his Cello Concertowere penned while in the U.S.

The Cello Concerto was inspired byDvorak’s hearing of Victor Herbert’sSecond Cello Concerto in NY. Dvorak’s40 minute concerto remains the mostoften performed concerti in the classicalrepertoire.

Dvorak shared a few words in a letter about the concerto’s finalmovement—”The finale closes gradu-ally with a dimenuendo, like a sigh, withreminiscences of the first and secondmovements. The solo dies down, thenswells again, and the last bars are takenup by the orchestra concluding with astormy finish.”

The FirebirdIgor Stravinsky was born June 17,

1882, in Orienbaum (now Lomo no sov),Russia. He died April 6, 1971, in NewYork City.

A t the turn of the 20th century, Rus-sia’s composers were attracted to

exotic tales either from the empire’s dis-tant provinces or its past. Stravinsky wasno different, and for his breakthroughpiece — a full-length ballet premiered inParis in 1910 — he turned to the oldRussian story of the Firebird and its ad-venture to save Tsar Ivan and his truelove from the evil King Kastchei.

The Firebird is full of magic anddrama, and Stravinsky’s beautifulmelodies and lush orchestration give thework its exotic atmosphere. It is the firstof three ballets Stravinsky wrote beforeWorld War I, each more rhythmic andmore modern sounding. Audiences weremore offended at each, and there was a

riot at the premiere of the third, The Riteof Spring.

In the Firebird’s Finale, the charac-ters rejoice at King Kastchei’s death andthe liberation of the princes andprincesses he had turned into stone.

‘Hoe-Down’Aaron Copland was born Nov. 14,

1900, in New York City’s Brooklyn bor-ough. He died in Tarrytown, New York,on Dec. 2, 1990.

I n 60 years of composing, Aaron Cop-land (1900–1990) evolved through

many different styles, but his most popularand enduring pieces date from 1930s and’40s, called his populist period.

Among those pieces were several bal-lets based on traditional American themes:a spring barn raising in the Appalachians,Billy the Kid, and vignettes from a rodeo.In them, he used familiar American folktunes, much like European nationalistcomposers used their folk music to givetheir music a particular flavor.

Rodeo is a simple story about theweekend the rodeo is held in a small west-

ern town. There are four movements, and“Hoe-Down” is the last. It depicts the cel-ebration after the hard work and the com-petitions are over, and most of thetownsfolk are at a town-wide dance.

It’s no surprise that “Hoe-Down’s” ex-uberance appealed to the beef industrywhen they were planning a new advertisingcampaign. (“Beef: It’s what’s for dinner.”)

Star Wars “Main Title”John Towner Williams was born on

February 8, 1932, in New York City. Helives in Los Angeles.

J ohn Williams is one of cinema’s great-est composers. In a career that has

spanned more than six decades, he haswritten scores to more than 75 films, in-cluding Jaws, Superman, all nine StarWars films, four Indiana Jones movies,E.T., Schindler’s List, Saving Private Ryan,and the first three Harry Potter films. Hislong collaboration with director StevenSpielberg continued included 28 filmscores to date. ■

— Thomas Consolo

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Send your notes or reviews of today’s performance to us:

Kentucky Symphony OrchestraAttn: Mr. James Cassidy

P.O. Box 72810Newport, KY 41072

or scan and send to jr@kyso.org

Hey, students (and teachers, too).

We have a quick homework assignment for you.

MUSICAL METTALURGYThe History of Brass in Music

M.I.B. BRASS QUINTETSchedule to perform at your high school in November and March, 2020-21Visit kyso.org/education-concerts/ for details

PROGRAM

Danny Elfman Main Theme from Men In Black (1997-2019)Tylman Susato La Mourisque from La Danserye (1551)Giovanni Gabrieli Canzona per sonare No. 2 (1608)Johann Sebastian Bach “My Spirit Be Joyful” (ca. 1726)George Frideric Handel Overture from Water Music Suite (1733)

Brian Buerkle, trumpetFranz Joseph Haydn St. Anthony’s Chorale (1780) Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Rondo from Concerto No.2 for Horn (1783)

Michelle Hembree, French HornGioachino Rossini William Tell Overture (1829)John Philip Sousa Semper Fidelis (1888)Scott Joplin Maple Leaf Rag (1899)Mayhew L. Lake Slidus Trombonus (1915)

David Roode, tromboneDuke Ellington It Don’t Mean A Thing (1931)Aaron Copland Simple Gifts from Appalachian Spring (1944)Alec Wilder Effie Joins a Carnival (1960)

Matthew Gray, tubaJohn Cheetham Scherzo (1963)John Williams Theme from Star Wars (1977-2019)

M.I.B. BRASS QUINTETBrian Buerkle & Scott Batchelder – Trumpets

Michelle Hembree – French HornDavid Roode – Trombone

Matthew Gray – TubaThe Kentucky Symphony Orchestra’s Education Outreach programs are made possible by

the generous support of the Charles H. Dater Foundation, the R.C.Durr Foundation and theMaxwell C. Weaver Foundation.

The KSO is supported by the generosity of tens of thousands of contributors to the ArtsWave Community Campaign.

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James R. Cassidy, Music Director

10 A.M. Tuesday, February 26, 2019 James Cassidy, leaderNational Underground Railroad Deondra Kamau Means, vocalistFreedom CenterCincinnati, Oh.

“Rags to Riches”The Roots of America’s Musical Heritage

“Just a Closer Walk with Thee” ❖ Traditional

“The Entertainer” Scott Joplin

“St. Louis Blues” ❖ W.C. Handy

“Queen Rag” Floyd Willis

“When It’s Sleepy Time Down South” ❖ Clarence Muse

“Castle Walk” James Reese Europe

“Black Bottom Stomp” Jelly Roll Morton

“Weary Blues” ❖ Artie Matthews

“Minnie the Moocher” ❖ Cab Calloway

“When the Saints Go Marching In” ❖ Traditional

❖ arranged or transcribed by Scot Woolley.

The Kentucky Symphony Orchestra’s Education Outreach programs are made possible by the generous support of the Charles H. Dater Foundation, the R.C.Durr Foundation and the

Maxwell C. Weaver Foundation.The KSO is supported by the generosity of tens of thousands of contributors

to the ArtsWave Community Campaign.

F E B R

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NEWPORT RAGTIME BANDFlute & piccolo

Jennifer KingClarinet

Rebecca WellsTrumpet

John ZappaTrombone

Marc Fields

KeyboardSteve Hinnenkamp

BanjoBob Poe

DrumsBrian Malone

ViolinManami White

BassMike Sharfe

The KSO formed the Newport Ragtime Band 18 years ago to explore the roots ofAmerica’s popular music heritage. From the advent of ragtime, just before the turn of the 20th century, through blues, Dixieland, and the early development of jazzthrough the early 1930s, composers and musicians (most of whom were black), created a unique American sound and musical language that can be traced to today’spopular music. In Chicago, New Orleans, St. Louis, Memphis, New York, and evenCincinnati, music by black performers made indelible impressions on society andgave the U.S. a new product to export. The KSO is proud to re-create music from thisera authentically for Black History Month.

Deondra Kamau MeansDeondra Means attended Cincinnati’s School for Creative and

Performing Arts before pursuing music and theater at the Webster Conservatory of Theatre Arts and at Xavier University. Means has performed with companies in Chicago, St. Louis, and in Romania,where he toured in 2007 with the cast of Man of La Mancha withNorthern Kentucky University. He’s appeared with the KSO’s NewportRagtime Band both in concert and on its, Rags to Riches recording.

Having earned the Corbett/Mayerson Award in Musical Theatre/ Drama, Deondrahas starred locally in August Wilson’s The Piano Lesson and appeared in A Raisin inthe Sun, Fences, Charlotte’s Web, and the R&B musical Blues Alley Cat. He also hasappeared in a wide range of classic and new musicals with Cincinnati Children’s Theatre. For Cincinnati Opera, he directed the touring opera Oh, Freedom.

Means has taught drama at the Cincinnati School of Creative and Performing Artsand as an adjunct professor at NKU. He is currently a teaching artist and arts integration specialist with the Children’s Theatre of Cincinnati. ■

James R. Cassidy,Music Director

THE KENTUCKY SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA

‘RAGS TO RICHES’

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FEBRUARY PROGRAM NOTES

America’s ‘ragged’ music“One fine night,

they leave the pool hall,headin’ for the dance at the Arm’ry!

Libertine men and scarlet women!And Rag-time, shameless music

that’ll grab your son and your daughterwith the arms of a

jungle animal instinct.Mass-staria!”

— LYRIC FROM “TROUBLE”,BROADWAY’S MUSIC MAN

I t’s a familiar pattern: A black musicalstyle catches on in the mainstream,

and its detractors pounce upon it as a signof moral decay. It happened with hip-hop, it happened with rock-’n’-roll, andit happened with jazz. A century ago, ithappened with ragtime, too.

Ragtime is often called the first trulyAmerican musical genre, and it is no co-incidence that it emerged and swept thenation just as American society was un-dergoing radical changes. The countrywas becoming more urban and more in-dustrial, as foreign immigrants teemed tothe coasts and southern blacks, squeezedby both political and economic discrimi-nation, headed north to cities likeChicago, Detroit, and St. Louis.

In music, white society up to thenusually acknowledged blacks onlythrough wincingly offensive noveltytunes designed to play upon and rein-force white stereotypes. Toward the endof the 19th century, though, black musi-cians caught the ear of mainstream cul-ture. To support themselves, many hadplayed as “sporting house” (special nightclub) pianists, honing their skills andsound in relative freedom because theybasically provided background music.

They blended common popularforms, particularly the march and its

dance cousins, with syncopation, a stylethat first came to be called “ragged” timeand eventually just ragtime.

The formula for ragtime is simple: Acontinuously syncopated melody, i.e. onewhose rhythms fall between the mainbeats, is played over a very square bassline in very regular, 16-bar strains. Theresult was extremely easy to dance to.

The first official rag was published in1897. Scott Joplin’s blockbuster hit“Maple Leaf Rag” was published justtwo years later, in 1899. Sales were fu-eled by the fact that most published ragswere piano solos; that made them easilyaccessible to the nation’s middle classfamilies whose parlors often boasted apiano. The craze lasted basically throughWorld War I, when a technological sea-change saw phonograph recordings re-place sheet music as the primary modefor distributing music.

Ragtime composers fell generally intoone of two styles, called “schools”: theMissouri, or classic, school and the east-ern school. The Missouri school, withJoplin (1867–1917) as its dean, remainedcohesive thanks to publisher John Stark,and its rags are generally regarded as mu-sically superior. Eastern rags were oftenwritten by imitators who emphasizedhigher-energy piano virtuosity. James P.Johnson and Eubie Blake brought thisstyle to its high point with their “stride”playing in the 1920s.

In the end, ragtime lost out to themore improvisational genres of jazz andblues. Ragtime was forgotten by all but asmall, dedicated community of aficiona-dos until the second ragtime craze in theearly 1970s, when Joshua Rifkin releaseda Grammy-nominated recording ofJoplin’s music and the film The Stingused ragtime in its soundtrack. Joplin’s“The En ter tainer” became a top 40 hit. ■

— Thomas Consolo

The Kentucky Arts Council, the state arts agency, supports the Ken-

tucky Symphony Orchestra with state tax dollars and federal

funding from the National Endowment for the Arts, which believes that

a great nation deserves great art.

The Kentucky Symphonyis supported in part by

K.S.O. Board of Directors

K.S.O. Staff

AcknowledgementsThe KSO would like to thank the following for their assistance:

Steven A. Brun, Stage Manager

James R. Cassidy,Executive Director

Thomas Consolo, Publications Director

Jennifer King, Personnel Manager

Lesley Cissell, Development Associate

Maya Guevara & Idra RismaMarketing Associates

Angela M. Williamson,General Manager

Jim FauszRPI Graphic

Data SolutionsNational Underground

Railroad Freedom Center

7 Hills Church & Production Team

Paula Steiner,President

Jill Kruetzkamp,Vice president

Courtney Venard,Secretary

James Cassidy,Executive Director*

Mark Bailey

Ileana Prego

Tarah Remy

Eppechal Smalls

Cathy Stickels

Jon Stiles

Ellen Hackman Ziegler

* – ex officio

Northern Kentucky’s Ticketto Culture & Entertainment

Strings NoirAtmospheric string classics for All-Hallows Eve7:30 p.m. Saturday, October 31, 2020Verst Group Logistics1985 International Way, Hebron, Ky.

Respighi, Schoenberg, Hermann & BeethovenL’Opera FamigliaTwo Couples — Great arias, duets and more7:30 p.m. Saturday, November 21, 2020St. Peter in Chains Cathedral Basilica325 8th St. Cincinnati, Oh.

Boito, Handel, Mozart, Puccini, Verdi, Wagner

Welcome BachThe Best of the Bach Boys7:30 p.m. Saturday, January 30, 2021Greaves Concert Hall, NKUHighland Heights, Ky.

J.S. Bach, C.P.E. Bach, W.F. Bach, J.C. Bach Demarre McGill, flute

Czech It OutAll-Dvorak7:30 p.m. Saturday, March 6, 2021Greaves Concert Hall, NKUHighland Heights, Ky.

Symphony No. 7 & Cello Concerto Miriam K. Smith, cello

kyso.org (859) 431-6216