June 3, 2023

by Susan Swinburne

Our final concert of the 2022-2023 season offers a cornucopia of distinctly American 20th and 21st century music, with works encompassing idioms, styles, and tonalities completely unique to their very American composers’ differing lives and times.

Brian Nabors – Pulse

Composer Brian Raphael Nabors has accomplished quite a lot in 32 years. Born April 10, 1991, in Birmingham, Alabama and raised in a home infused with music and art, the precocious youngster taught himself to play piano at age six, prior to embracing all the musical technicalities as a teenager. With a doctorate in Musical Arts by the age of 28 and a rapidly expanding brag sheet of fellowships and awards, he is sought after for commissions and collaborations by orchestras and ensembles around the globe.

Nabors’ Pulse, composed and premiered in 2019, was inspired by his own introspective ruminations on the nature of connection between humans and their surroundings, both physical and spiritual. “The universe seems to have this natural rhythm to it. It is as if every living and moving thing we are aware and unaware of is being held together by a mysterious, resolute force… our deep connection as living beings to everything within, over, under, and around us.” 

Ellington — Harlem

It is no exaggeration to call Edward Kennedy “Duke” Ellington an American Icon. His decades-long career as an internationally acclaimed conductor, performer, and composer is legendary, as is his reputation as a cultural ambassador for the explosive artistry of Harlem during and after its groundbreaking Renaissance in the first half of the 20th century. His tone poem Harlem from 1951 harnesses the sounds and images unique to this distinctive Manhattan district at a distinct moment in time, rich with African American cultural innovation and creative energy.

While Ellington’s orchestral compositions are not nearly so well-known as the extensive canon of his jazz works, there is no shortage of exuberant praise for his richly imagined symphonic and chamber orchestra pieces. Eminent composer and critic Gunther Schuller called him, “one of the half-dozen greatest masters of our time.”

So, from whence cometh the “Duke” in Ellington? Ellington acquired his royal nickname at a very young age. As the story goes, his mother made sure he

learned refined habits and manners. Apparently, it worked. He credits the nickname to his childhood friend Edgar McEntree, who felt his grace and style seemed very distinguished. “So, he called me Duke,” and it stuck.

Nan Schwartz – Romanza

Trail-blazing Grammy-winning and Emmy-nominated composer and orchestrator Nan Schwartz proudly stands shoulder to shoulder with legions of her male peers who score for film and TV. This prolific artist, known for collaborations with Alexander Desplat and others, and for her work on benchmark films including Oscar winners Argo and Life of Pi, broke the glass ceiling in film composing while still in her twenties. With a body of work that has enlivened film-going audiences for three-plus decades, she is also the next generation of an American musical dynasty. Her father originated the “Glenn Miller sound” as that orchestra’s clarinetist as well as recording often with Frank Sinatra and others; her mother sang with Tommy Dorsey, Dean Martin, Judy Garland, and too many more stars to name.

In Romanza, Schwartz envelopes the listener in a lush carpet of sound, building anticipation that leads delicately to a sweet, piercing solo violin singing of passionately of love.

Florence Price — Piano Concerto in One Movement

The genius of Florence Price, lost to history for decades after her death in 1953, is justly being revived as 21st century audiences discover her remarkable life and boundary-breaking career.

As a young woman of mixed race born in 1887 Arkansas, Price excelled in school and began musical studies as a child with her mother, a music teacher. She was admitted to and attended the New England Conservatory of Music only by “passing” as a Mexican, but she thrived there, graduated in 1906, and subsequently taught music at the college level. In 1927, she relocated to Chicago with her family to escape racial bias and, there in the windy city, her legacy as a composer took flight.

Price achieved an unprecedented triumph in 1932 when her Symphony No. 1 in E minor, having won a prestigious music award, was performed by the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and became the first full orchestral work by an African American woman to be performed by a major American symphony orchestra. It received a glowing review in the Chicago Daily News: “a faultless work…worthy of a place in the regular symphonic repertory.”

Two years later, in 1934, the CSO premiered the composer’s Piano Concerto in One Movement. The work demonstrates a masterful weaving of Price’s sophisticated and elegant talent for orchestration with her delightful creative exploration of African American musical themes and spirituals. Again garnering great acclaim, the work was performed in multiple venues around the region. The Pittsburgh Sun-Telegraph anointed the Concerto, “real American music.”

Despite the acclaim her work enjoyed during her lifetime, Florence Price became a footnote to 20th century music until a miraculous discovery occurred in 2009, when a derelict house outside of Chicago – later determined to have been her vacation home – was found to contain hundreds of her lost manuscripts… but, not the piano concerto. That turned up only in 2019 at a private auction. Happily, publisher G. Schirmer eventually purchased the entire extant Price catalog and her genius is now attracting the attention it rightfully deserves.

George Gershwin — An American in Paris

George Gershwin, a powerhouse popular composer of show tunes, rags, and patriotic anthems, did a swan dive into the classical music deep end with his experimental composition Rhapsody in Blue. In the audience for that performance in 1924 was New York Symphony (later Philharmonic) conductor Walter Damrosch, who was overwhelmed by the performance and later commissioned Gershwin to write two works for orchestra. Gershwin was eager to do it, but according to his own recollections, he ran out and got “four or five books on musical structure” to be sure he knew what was expected.

The second of these commissions, An American in Paris, was an immediate gangbusters success when it premiered in 1928. Gershwin described it as a “rhapsodic ballet” and explained his intention to “portray the impressions of an American visitor in Paris as he strolls about the city, listens to the various street noises (Gershwin brought home real Parisian taxi horns for its performance), and absorbs the French atmosphere.” It spawned a beloved film in 1951 that won the Oscar for best picture, which later spawned a blockbuster Broadway musical. An American in Paris continues to be a toe-tapping staple of 20th Century American symphonic music.

———–

Susan Swinburne has been a lover and student of music since demanding piano lessons at age six. Her work in orchestra management has enriched her life personally and professionally for the past three decades. A habitué of concert halls throughout southern California, she lives, listens, writes, and researches in the South Bay.

A native of Mountain View, California, Sean Takada is studying under the tutelage of Professor Movses Pogossian at UCLA. A graduate of Stuyvesant High School in Manhattan, New York City, Sean lived in Manhattan for five years since 2014, where he was a student of Professor Li Lin at the Juilliard School Pre-College Division. Sean began the violin at the age of 5 and was accepted to the San Francisco Conservatory of Music Preparatory Division four years later to study with Bettina Mussumelli. He was awarded First Prize in the Yehudi Menuhin – Helen Dowling Competition in 2012 and was also a winner of Pacific Musical Society later that year.

Throughout the 2013-14 season, he was the youngest member of the San Francisco Symphony Youth Orchestra. Sean has won the Lincoln Center Chamber Music Society Competition representing Stuyvesant High School in 2016, 2017, and 2019, and became the first concertmaster for the New York All-State Orchestra from his school. Sean also received an honorable mention award from YoungArts 2018-19. He has participated as a member of the National Youth Orchestra of The United States in 2019, performing at the BBC Proms and the Young Euro Classic in Berlin. He was also chosen as a fellow for the prestigious Tanglewood Music Center Orchestra at the Tanglewood Music Festival in Lenox, MA. He collaborated with artists such as Andris Nelsons, Thomas Adès, Emanuel Ax, and members of the Juilliard String Quartet. Aside from school and music, Sean grew up playing club soccer, and was the MVP for his high school varsity team during his senior year. He now plays for fun with his friends in the intramural league at UCLA.

Charlie Lin began his musical studies at the age of six in Dallas, TX. He holds a BA in violin performance and biology from Northwestern University and a M.M. from the Thornton School of Music at USC. Lin is currently pursuing a Graduate Certificate in Violin Performance at USC.

Primary teachers have included Glenn Dicterow, Gerardo Ribeiro, Jan Sloman, and Orit Bedar. Charlie Lin has performed in Japan as Principal Second Violinist with the Pacific Music Festival orchestra under the baton of Ken-David Masur and Lahav Shani as well as with the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra (LACO) under the baton of Jaime Martin.

A South Korean violinist, Haesol Lee started playing the violin at the age of 3 after seeing her older brothers play violin and piano. In 2004, she immigrated to the United States with her family and continued her violin studies at the Colburn School. Being interested in exploring life beyond just music, she decided to do her bachelor’s degree at Rice University where she studied with Paul Kantor on full scholarship. Then she decided to deepen her musical knowledge at The Juilliard School with Li Lin for her master’s degree program. She recently came back to California to work actively as a freelancer while studying at USC with Bing Wang. Since August
2022, she has subbed in LA Philharmonic, joined Long Beach Symphony as a section violinist, appeared as a guest associate concertmaster of CMI Orchestra with San Antonio Ballet, and joined the whole soul quartet that plays all classical repertoire as well as R&B and Hip-Hop arrangements in studios. While being an active performer, she’s also passionate about sharing her knowledge and experience with her students and her students have gotten into renowned schools like MSM Precollege and Crossroads School.

Born in Seoul, Korea, Ms. Choi has performed widely throughout the US and Korea. She has frequently performed in Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, Kodak Eastman Theater, Shanghai Oriental Art Center, Seoul Art Center, and Disney Concert Hall.

A founding member of the Three Strings Ensemble, her trio has had numerous concert series sponsored by the city of Seoul. The ensemble was named a winner of the Manhattan International Music Competition and has been featured in Carnegie Hall for a winner’s concert in 2022; it has been named a special prize winner of Astor Piazzolla International Music Competition for a chamber division.

Recognizing a passion for ensemble playing from an early age, she has performed with Rochester Symphony Orchestra, Korean Symphony Orchestra, Korea National Opera.

Ms. Choi holds a BM degree from Manhattan School of Music and a MM degree from Eastman School of Music, studied with Patinka Kopec, Charles Castleman, and Glenn Dicterow, the former concertmaster of New York Philharmonic for a Graduate Certificate Diploma from the University of Southern California.

In 2019 Ms. Choi joined Santa Barbara Symphony Orchestra and New west Symphony Orchestra as a section violinist.

by Susan Swinburne — 

Our final concert of the 2022-2023 season offers a cornucopia of distinctly American 20th and 21st century music, with works encompassing idioms, styles, and tonalities completely unique to their very American composers’ differing lives and times.

Brian Nabors – Pulse

Composer Brian Raphael Nabors has accomplished quite a lot in 32 years. Born April 10, 1991, in Birmingham, Alabama and raised in a home infused with music and art, the precocious youngster taught himself to play piano at age six, prior to embracing all the musical technicalities as a teenager. With a doctorate in Musical Arts by the age of 28 and a rapidly expanding brag sheet of fellowships and awards, he is sought after for commissions and collaborations by orchestras and ensembles around the globe.

Nabors’ Pulse, composed and premiered in 2019, was inspired by his own introspective ruminations on the nature of connection between humans and their surroundings, both physical and spiritual. “The universe seems to have this natural rhythm to it. It is as if every living and moving thing we are aware and unaware of is being held together by a mysterious, resolute force… our deep connection as living beings to everything within, over, under, and around us.” 

Ellington — Harlem

It is no exaggeration to call Edward Kennedy “Duke” Ellington an American Icon. His decades-long career as an internationally acclaimed conductor, performer, and composer is legendary, as is his reputation as a cultural ambassador for the explosive artistry of Harlem during and after its groundbreaking Renaissance in the first half of the 20th century. His tone poem Harlem from 1951 harnesses the sounds and images unique to this distinctive Manhattan district at a distinct moment in time, rich with African American cultural innovation and creative energy.

While Ellington’s orchestral compositions are not nearly so well-known as the extensive canon of his jazz works, there is no shortage of exuberant praise for his richly imagined symphonic and chamber orchestra pieces. Eminent composer and critic Gunther Schuller called him, “one of the half-dozen greatest masters of our time.”

So, from whence cometh the “Duke” in Ellington? Ellington acquired his royal nickname at a very young age. As the story goes, his mother made sure he

learned refined habits and manners. Apparently, it worked. He credits the nickname to his childhood friend Edgar McEntree, who felt his grace and style seemed very distinguished. “So, he called me Duke,” and it stuck.

Nan Schwartz – Romanza

Trail-blazing Grammy-winning and Emmy-nominated composer and orchestrator Nan Schwartz proudly stands shoulder to shoulder with legions of her male peers who score for film and TV. This prolific artist, known for collaborations with Alexander Desplat and others, and for her work on benchmark films including Oscar winners Argo and Life of Pi, broke the glass ceiling in film composing while still in her twenties. With a body of work that has enlivened film-going audiences for three-plus decades, she is also the next generation of an American musical dynasty. Her father originated the “Glenn Miller sound” as that orchestra’s clarinetist as well as recording often with Frank Sinatra and others; her mother sang with Tommy Dorsey, Dean Martin, Judy Garland, and too many more stars to name.

In Romanza, Schwartz envelopes the listener in a lush carpet of sound, building anticipation that leads delicately to a sweet, piercing solo violin singing of passionately of love.

Florence Price — Piano Concerto in One Movement

The genius of Florence Price, lost to history for decades after her death in 1953, is justly being revived as 21st century audiences discover her remarkable life and boundary-breaking career.

As a young woman of mixed race born in 1887 Arkansas, Price excelled in school and began musical studies as a child with her mother, a music teacher. She was admitted to and attended the New England Conservatory of Music only by “passing” as a Mexican, but she thrived there, graduated in 1906, and subsequently taught music at the college level. In 1927, she relocated to Chicago with her family to escape racial bias and, there in the windy city, her legacy as a composer took flight.

Price achieved an unprecedented triumph in 1932 when her Symphony No. 1 in E minor, having won a prestigious music award, was performed by the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and became the first full orchestral work by an African American woman to be performed by a major American symphony orchestra. It received a glowing review in the Chicago Daily News: “a faultless work…worthy of a place in the regular symphonic repertory.”

Two years later, in 1934, the CSO premiered the composer’s Piano Concerto in One Movement. The work demonstrates a masterful weaving of Price’s sophisticated and elegant talent for orchestration with her delightful creative exploration of African American musical themes and spirituals. Again garnering great acclaim, the work was performed in multiple venues around the region. The Pittsburgh Sun-Telegraph anointed the Concerto, “real American music.”

Despite the acclaim her work enjoyed during her lifetime, Florence Price became a footnote to 20th century music until a miraculous discovery occurred in 2009, when a derelict house outside of Chicago – later determined to have been her vacation home – was found to contain hundreds of her lost manuscripts… but, not the piano concerto. That turned up only in 2019 at a private auction. Happily, publisher G. Schirmer eventually purchased the entire extant Price catalog and her genius is now attracting the attention it rightfully deserves.

George Gershwin — An American in Paris

George Gershwin, a powerhouse popular composer of show tunes, rags, and patriotic anthems, did a swan dive into the classical music deep end with his experimental composition Rhapsody in Blue. In the audience for that performance in 1924 was New York Symphony (later Philharmonic) conductor Walter Damrosch, who was overwhelmed by the performance and later commissioned Gershwin to write two works for orchestra. Gershwin was eager to do it, but according to his own recollections, he ran out and got “four or five books on musical structure” to be sure he knew what was expected.

The second of these commissions, An American in Paris, was an immediate gangbusters success when it premiered in 1928. Gershwin described it as a “rhapsodic ballet” and explained his intention to “portray the impressions of an American visitor in Paris as he strolls about the city, listens to the various street noises (Gershwin brought home real Parisian taxi horns for its performance), and absorbs the French atmosphere.” It spawned a beloved film in 1951 that won the Oscar for best picture, which later spawned a blockbuster Broadway musical. An American in Paris continues to be a toe-tapping staple of 20th Century American symphonic music.

———–

Susan Swinburne has been a lover and student of music since demanding piano lessons at age six. Her work in orchestra management has enriched her life personally and professionally for the past three decades. A habitué of concert halls throughout southern California, she lives, listens, writes, and researches in the South Bay.

Writer, Director, Performer. An internationally renowned, critically acclaimed, award-winning artist, his debut album is the first #1 rap album in Cambodia. Newsweek proclaimed him as “The First Cambodian Rap Star.” Through masterful lyrics of powerful rap music, his music not only entertains but also educates.

His lyrics have been published by multiple publishers and are currently being used for Southeast Asian Studies. In 2004 he went on a 23 states tour across the United States and was a subject for Japan’s documentary film, which won NHK’s Best Documentary of the Year in 2004. His involvement in films ranges from scoring music for a baseball documentary RICE FIELD OF DREAMS (2010) to creating original music for Sundance Award Winning and Oscar Shortlisted movie ENEMIES OF THE PEOPLE (2010). He produced the award-winning short film Paulina (2013), and provided music for the Student Academy Awards/Oscars finalist short film SAMNANG (2013), the Nasir ‘Nas’ Jones produced film SHAKE THE DUST (2014), NHK’s Special Programs: Asian Dreamers (2014), and produced IN THE LIFE OF MUSIC (2019), a Cambodia Oscar Selection Committee selected film to represent the country of Cambodia in the 92nd Academy Awards in 2020. A Writer, Producer and Director of SATOOK (2022), the film that was granted by the Lilly Endowment Inc. and the SMITHSONIAN’s National Museum of Asian Art.

Sydney McSweeney’s distinctive jazz, gospel, and pop vocal stylings have made her one of the country’s hottest young vocalists. Her dynamic performances with the Columbus Jazz Orchestra have been described as “stunningly beautiful” and her standing room-only night club performances have become a favorite of audiences across the country. Although her schedule is jam packed with recording sessions and performances, as a devoted teacher, she still carves out time to nurture the talents of her many students. When Sydney isn’t singing or teaching, she loves spending time under the warm covers of her bed watching movies.

Southern California native Mark Alpízar has enjoyed a multifaceted career as a conductor, clarinetist, and music educator throughout the United States. He is the music director of the Vermont Youth Orchestra Association and is currently a regular guest conductor of the Holland Symphony in Michigan, the conductor for Mariachi Garibaldi de Jaime Cuéllar, and the cover conductor of the Alabama Symphony. Prior to his move to Vermont, he was the assistant conductor of the Cleveland Pops Orchestra, Cleveland Pops Youth, the American Youth Symphony, the National Repertory Orchestra, and your Long Beach Symphony Orchestra. He holds a doctorate in orchestra and opera conducting from Arizona State University as well as masters and bachelors degrees from the Cole Conservatory of Music.