Newsletter 2011: click to be taken to link

inside this issue…

Season 57: Celebrate the legacy of YMF!

P. 1 Season 56 Update
Farewell to Maestro Scaglione

P. 2 Foundation News

P. 3 Harp Program wins NEA Grant
YMF Trustee wins GRAMMY

Evanston, Illinois – The Solti Foundation U.S. announced the recipient of its largest monetary award, The Sir Georg Solti Conducting Award, also known as the Solti Fellow. Among the largest grants currently given to American conductors in the formative years of their careers, the prestigious $25,000 award is given biennially to a single promising American conductor 38 years of age or younger, and includes introductions to three of Chicago’s most prestigious performing organizations: Lyric Opera of Chicago, Chicago Symphony Orchestra and Chicago Opera Theater. Texas native Case Scaglione, currently the 20th music director of the Young Musicians Foundation Debut Orchestra of Los Angeles, and formerly honored in 2009 with a Career Assistance Award by the Foundation, is the third recipient of the Solti Fellow in the Foundation’s history. Among his performance credits are the Cleveland Orchestra and the Aspen Music Festival and School. A frequent guest assistant and cover conductor with the St Louis Symphony and David Robertson, Mr. Scaglione has also assisted at the Baltimore Symphony and Baltimore Opera. This summer 2011, Case Scaglione has been chosen as one of only three conducting fellows to participate in the prestigious conducting program at Tanglewood Music Center. He will work with Maestros James Levine and Stefan Asbury.

Sean Newhouse, recipient of a $3,500 Career Assistance Award, is the first American-born conductor in fifteen years to be appointed Assistant Conductor to the Boston Symphony Orchestra, a position he took up in 2010 at the invitation of Maestro Levine. Formerly an assistant conductor at the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra, Mr. Newhouse began his career as Music Director of the Young Musicians Foundation Debut Orchestra in Los Angeles. Of note is Mr. Newhouse’s acclaimed last-minute debut with the Boston Symphony this past February 2011, where he stepped in to conduct Mahler’s Ninth Symphony on two hours’ notice in place of James Levine. Among Mr. Newhouse’s conducting credits are the Deutsche Staatsphilharmonie Rheinland-Pfalz, Boston Symphony

Case Scaglione with David Zinman

Debut Orchestra Conductor and Music Director, Case Scaglione, will be conducting the Cleveland Orchestra at the Blossom Festival on July 31st, 2010 at 8pm. This marks Mr. Scaglione’s debut with the Cleveland Orchestra at Blossom Music Center. He will be conducting Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis by Ralph Vaughan Williams. For more information go to http://www.clevelandorchestra.com/

“Revolutionary Voices” at The Broad Stage

Experience a repertoire of classical music throughout the ages on Saturday, April 17, 4 p.m. at The Broad Stage, 1310 11th Street, Santa Monica, CA when the world-renowned Young Musicians Foundation Debut Orchestra performs “Revolutionary Voices”.

The free concert will feature the works of Carl Maria von Weber and Ludwig van Beethoven, as well as modern composers Arvo Pärt, Charles Fox and Michael Daugherty.

“I find it fitting that the YMF Debut Orchestra is concluding its 55^th season with a program entitled “Revolutionary Voices,” Maestro Case Scaglione said. “Classical music’s course has always been driven by composers who have had the courage to push the envelope and think outside the box. YMF has always searched for and supported these composers. From the time of Igor Stravinsky all the way to Charlie Fox today, YMF has carried on this tradition proudly. In addition to a world premiere by Mr. Fox we will also perform the music of Weber, Pärt, Michael Daugherty, and Beethoven.” (more…)

Beverly Hills, March 3, 2010— The Young Musicians Foundation and its Debut Orchestra, led by music director and conductor, Maestro Case Scaglione, present “Cultural Warfare,” a concert performance and what promises to be a lively roundtable dialogue. The Debut Orchestra’s first performance takes place Sunday, March 14 at the Broad Stage, 1310 11th Street, Santa Monica, 4:00 p.m. This will be followed by a performance on Monday, March 15 at Hollywood’s Helen Bernstein High School, 1309 N Wilton Place, Los Angeles, CA 90028 at 1:30 p.m. (more…)

Othalie Graham

On January 31st, 2010, the Young Musicians Foundation will be staging Act II of Richard Wagner's opera, Tristan und Isolde. The Debut Orchestra, led by Maestro Case Scaglione, will be showcasing the talents of 5 rising wagnerian stars. (more...)

Arvo Pärt – A Season Long Retrospective

Wenn Bach Bienen Gezuchtet Hatte
Sunday, November 1st 2009 1pm

Fratres for Violin & Strings
Sunday, March 14th 2010 4pm

Festina lente
Saturday, April 17th 2010 4pm

Venue:
The Broad Stage in Santa Monica
1310 11th Street, Santa Monica CA 90401

Trisan und Isolde, Act II
Sunday, January 31st 2010
4pm Performance

Venue:
The Broad Stage in Santa Monica
1310 11th Street, Santa Monica CA 90401

Meet the Cast click photo for bio

Isolde – Othalie Graham, Soprano	Tristan – Jeffrey Springer,   tenor	Brangaene – Erica Brookhyser, mezzo-soprano	King Marke – Pawel Izdebski, bass	Melot – Andrew Scott Carter, tenor

Production

Stephanie Vlahos, stage director
Jared A. Sayeg, lighting designer
Nicolas Kostner, stage designer

Synopsis

Act 1

Isolde sadly tells her handmaid, Brangäne of how, following the death of her fiancé, Morold, a stranger called Tantris was brought to her. Tantris was found mortally wounded in a boat, and Isolde used her healing powers to restore him to health. She discovered during Tantris’ recovery, however, that he was actually Tristan, the murderer of her fiancé. Isolde attempted to kill the man with his own sword as he lay helpless before her but Tristan had looked not at the sword that would kill him, but into her eyes. His action pierced her heart and she was unable to slay him. Tristan was allowed to leave, but later returned with the intention of marrying Isolde to his uncle, King Marke. Isolde, furious at Tristan’s betrayal, insists that he drink atonement to her, and from her medicine-chest produces a vial to make the drink. Brangäne is shocked to see that it is a lethal poison.

Kurwenal appears in the women’s quarters and announces that Tristan has agreed to see Isolde after all. When Tristan arrives, Isolde tells him that she now knows that he was Tantris, and that he owes her his life. Tristan agrees to drink the potion, now prepared by Brangäne, even though he knows it may kill him. As he drinks, Isolde tears the remainder of the potion from him and drinks it herself. At this moment, each believing that their lives are about to end, the two declare their love for each other. Kurwenal, who announces the imminent arrival on board of King Marke, interrupts their rapture. Isolde asks Brangäne which potion she prepared and Brangäne replies, as the sailors hail the arrival of King Marke, that it was not a poisonous drink, but rather a love-potion.

Act 2

King Marke leads a hunting party out into the night, leaving the castle empty, save for Isolde and Brangäne, who stand beside a burning brazier. Isolde, listening to the hunting horns, believes several times that the hunting party is far enough away to warrant the extinguishing of the brazier — the prearranged signal for Tristan to join her. Brangäne warns Isolde that Melot, one of King Marke’s knights, has seen the amorous looks exchanged between Tristan and Isolde and suspects their passion. Isolde, however, believes Melot to be Tristan’s most loyal friend, and, in a frenzy of desire, extinguishes the flames. Brangäne retires to the ramparts to keep watch as Tristan arrives.

The lovers, at last alone and freed from the constraints of courtly life, declare their passion for each other. Tristan decries the realm of daylight, which is false, unreal, and keeps them apart. It is only in night, he claims, that they can truly be together and only in the long night of death can they be eternally united. During their long tryst, Brangäne calls a warning several times that the night is ending, but her cries fall upon deaf ears. The day breaks in on the lovers as Melot leads King Marke and his men to find Tristan and Isolde in each other’s arms. Marke is heart-broken, not only because of his adopted son Tristan’s betrayal but also because Marke, too, has come to love Isolde. The love duet in Act II is regarded as the most rapturous in all of western music.

Tristan turns to Isolde, who agrees to follow him again into the realm of night. Melot and Tristan fight, but, at the crucial moment, Tristan throws his sword aside and Melot mortally wounds him.

Act 3

Kurwenal has brought Tristan home to his castle at Kareol in Brittany. A shepherd pipes a mournful tune and asks if Tristan is awake. Kurwenal replies that only Isolde’s arrival can save Tristan. Tristan’s mourning ends when Kurwenal tells him that Isolde is on her way. Tristan, overjoyed, asks if her ship is in sight.

Tristan collapses in delirium. After his collapse, the shepherd is heard piping the arrival of Isolde’s ship, and, as Kurwenal rushes to meet her, Tristan tears the bandages from his wounds in his excitement. As Isolde arrives at his side, Tristan dies with her name on his lips.

Isolde collapses beside her deceased lover just as the appearance of another ship is announced. Kurwenal spies Melot, Marke and Brangäne arriving and, in an attempt to avenge Tristan, furiously attacks Melot. Both Melot and Kurwenal, however, are killed in the fight. Marke and Brangäne finally reach Tristan and Isolde. Marke, grieving over the body of his “truest friend,” explains that he learned of the love-potion from Brangäne and has come not to part the lovers, but to unite them. Isolde appears to wake at this, but instead, in a final aria describing her vision of Tristan risen again (the “Liebestod”, “love death”), dies of grief.

For fifty-five years, the YMF National Debut Competition has provided talented musicians with solo performances with the Debut Orchestra and the National Orchestra Camp, along with a significant cash prize to further their studies.

PLEASE CHECK BACK IN MID-MARCH FOR MORE INFORMATION.

Sunday, March 14th 2010 at 4pm

The Broad Stage – 1310 11th Street, Santa Monica CA 90401 map

Free Concert. No ticket needed.

Program:

Pärt Fratres for Violin & Strings

Caitlin Kelley, Violin

Arutunian Trumpet Concerto

Adam Bhatia, Trumpet

*Debut Competition Winner 2009

Brahms Symphony No. 4 in E minor

Case Scaglione, Conductor

Caitlin Kelley, violin	Adam Bhatia, trumpet	Case Scaglione, conductor

Outreach Concert Series – click here

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Program Notes

ARVO PÄRT

(11 SEPTEMBER 1935 – )

Fratres for Violin, Strings and Percussion

Duration: 12 min

Arvo Pärt is an Estonian composer who immigrated to Austria in 1980 in order to escape struggles with Soviet officials. Since the late 1970s, Pärt has worked in a minimalist style that employs a self-made compositional technique called tintinnabulation. Pärt has said that tintinnabuli is a word “which evokes the pealing of bells, the bells’ complex but rich sonorous mass of overtones, the gradual unfolding of patterns implicit in the sound itself, and the idea of a sound that is simultaneously static and in flux.” More specifically, it is characterized by simple harmonies that are often single, unadorned notes or triads in various inversions and are rhythmically simple and do not change tempo.

Fratres was first composed in 1977 as a string quintet. Six further versions were written, including for violin, strings and percussion (1980), until 1992 and exemplifies Pärt’s Tintinnabuli style. Structurally, it consists of a set of nine chord sequences, separated by a recurring percussion motif. The chord sequences themselves follow a clear pattern while the progression explores a rich harmonic space.

In this piece, Pärt enters into “an area I sometimes wander into when I am searching for answers – in my life, my music, my work. In my dark hours, I have the certain feeling that everything outside this one thing has no meaning. The complex and many-faceted only confuses me and I must search for unity. What is it, this one thing, and how do I find my way to it? Traces of this perfect thing appear many guises – and everything that is unimportant falls away.”

ALEXANDER ARUTUNIAN

(23 SEPTEMBER 1920 – )

Trumpet Concerto in A-flat major

Duration: 17 min

Widely known particularly for his Trumpet Concerto, Alexander Arutunian is an Armenian composer and pianist. In 1948 he was awarded the USSR State Prize for the Motherland cantata, a graduation piece he wrote as a student at the Moscow Conservatory.

In 1950, he wrote his Trumpet Concerto in A-flat major. While not divided into formal movements, the work consists of 5 attacca sections: Andante—Allegro energico / Meno mosso / Tempo I / Meno Mosso / Tempo I – Cadenza Coda. The melodic and rhythmic characteristics of Armenian folk music are strong in this work. He expresses his nationality by incorporating the flavor of “ashughner”, or folk minstrel, improvisations.

JOHANNES BRAHMS

(7 May 1833 – 3 April 1897)

Symphony No. 4 in E minor, Op. 98

Duration: 39 min

A German composer, Johannes Brahms was a leading musician and towering figure of the Romantic period. His music is firmly rooted in the structures and compositional techniques of the Baroque and Classical masters. A master of counterpoint and development, Brahms aimed to honor the purity of these German structures and advance them into a Romantic idiom. While many contemporaries found his music too academic, his process of creating bold new approaches to harmony and melody has been admired by subsequent generations of composers.

Completed in 1885, Symphony No. 4 in E minor, Op. 98 is the last of his symphonies and is arguably his magnum opus. They symphony is in four movements. The first movement, Allegro non troppo (E minor), is dramatic and passionate, while the second movement, Andante moderato (E minor/E major), has an air of requiem. The third movement, Allegro giocoso (C major), is joyful with the resonance of triangles. The finale, Allegro energico e passionate (E minor) is a rare example of a symphonic chaconne. The repeating theme was adapted Passacaglia theme from Johann Sebastian Bach’s Cantata No. 150 Nach dir, Herr, verlanget mich. The symphony is rich in allusions, most notably to various Beethoven compositions.