MIRACULOUS MUSIC

Special Thanks to:

Sponsor or the Harrisburg SymphonyMusical Chairs Program

January 11-12, 2014Masterworks 3

Welcome to the Concert begins 45 minutes before each

Masterworks concert outside section 208 of the Forum Lobby.

Michael Torke: Javelin (1994)Bela Bartok: Suite from The Miraculous Mandarin (1924)IntermissionJohannes Brahms: Piano Concerto No. 2 (1881) featuring Markus Groh, piano

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Do you know what a miracle is? Miriam Webster’s dictionary defines a miracle as a very amazing or unusual event, thing, or achievement. This concert is named Miraculous Music, partly because in it, a piece of music called The Miraculous Mandarin will be on the program. We happen to think that Johannes Brahms’ Piano Concerto No. 2 is also a pretty miraculous work and you may find that Javelin, commissioned for the 1996 Atlanta Olympics and composed by Michael Torke, is also an amazing achievement (a miracle!). Three very different pieces of music have been selected by Maestro Malina for this ‘amazing achievement’ concert. We hope you will tell us what you liked about each piece after the concert is over.

Draw us a picture or do some creative writing about What Makes This Music Miraculous?

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HEAR THE COLOR: MASTERWORKS 3 If you joined us for the first HSO Masterworks concert of the season back in October, you probably already started making your Welcome to the Concert folder and your color wheel. (Remember the green pie wedge with tuba player, Eric Henry’s picture you cut out and affixed to your own color wheel and the black pie wedge with Marjorie Goldberg’s picture?). At the end of the season, we will have a completed wheel, filled with beautiful colors and with lots of musician photos/memories from the 2013/14 season. The color for the third concert, and thus your third wedge in the color wheel is: ORANGE. Why Orange?

The name of the second piece is The Miraculous Mandarin. So, we figured orange would be a good color wheel color for this concert because Mandarin oranges were, well, orange. But there’s another reason we like orange for this concert! Michael Torke, composer of our first piece, Javelin, has composed another piece, called Ecstatic Orange, a part of his suite of pieces called Color Music. As a lover of the color orange, I can say that anyone who writes a piece of music called Ecstatic Orange is someone I’d like to meet!

Color Quiz: WHERE IS BLACK? Everyone has two places on his or her body that seem completely black. They look this way because no light penetrates them. Sometimes they appear red, which is their real color, but usually you can’t see them like this. What are these places? (Answer on page 10)Composer Corner

Michael Torke, American composerBorn in Wisconsin in 1961

He studied at the Eastman School of Music and at Yale University. His work is considered minimalistic in style, called “post-minimalist”. Torke’s compositions have been commissioned by and for many famous dance choreographers. Post-minimalist music is often repetitive in structure, which is comforting in some ways (we like to hear things we recognize) and perhaps a bit mystifying at the same time (we recognize the repetitive sounds, but we are not quite sure what the musical patterns mean altogether). Michael Torke’s music incorporates musical techniques from both the classical tradition and the contemporary pop world. His Javelin is the first piece on this concert. Hope you like the musical patterns and, of course, the color, orange!

Béla Bartók, Hungarian composerBorn March 25, 1881 in Hungary Died September 26, 1945

Style/Period Modern 1920-Present Béla Bartók was born to a musical family. His father was director of an agricultural school, but also a talented amateur musician who played piano and cello and composed short dance pieces. Bartók’s father even founded a music society and an amateur orchestra in his town. Bartók’s mother also played the piano. It is no surprise that Béla quickly became a musician himself! He had great talents for rhythm and memory, and began taking piano lessons on his fifth birthday. Bartók began composing when he was nine years old, writing short dance pieces named after friends and family members.

Bartók’s father died when Béla was only seven years old, leaving the family in a difficult financial situation. Bartók’s mother began teaching piano lessons to support the family, and they had to move from place to place depending on where teaching jobs were available. In 1898, Bartók began his studies at the Budapest Academy of Music. While there, he gained a reputation as a fantastic piano player. He was especially known for extraordinary performances of Liszt’s piano pieces. Everybody at school thought Bartók would be most famous for playing piano and that composing would be more of a hobby.

In 1904, Bartók overheard a young girl singing a Hungarian peasant song. Bartók immediately realized that Hungarian folk songs could provide wonderful material for classical music. In 1905, he contacted Zoltán Kodály, and the two composers began travelling around Hungary collecting and publishing folksongs. Soon, Bartók began travelling around other countries looking for folk music as well. He developed a scientific system for collecting and analyzing folk music from around the world.

In 1940, Bartók moved to the United States to work on a folk collection at Columbia University. In 1942, he became sick with leukemia and died in September of 1945. Bartók is remembered as one of the two great Hungarian composers, along with Franz Liszt. He combined traditional folk melodies and experimental harmonies to create modern, Hungarian music. His scientific classification of folk music is often considered the beginning of ethnomusicology.

Johannes Brahms, composerMarkus Groh, Pianist

Today’s concert features a very famous piece of music, completed by Johannes Brahms in 1881: his Piano Concerto No. 2. The piece was premiered in Budapest with Brahms himself as soloist. It was an immediate success. In this concert with the Harrisburg Symphony Orchestra, you will hear piano soloist, Markus Groh, a wonderful German pianist, play Brahms’ Piano Concerto No. 2.

Piano Concerto No. 2

This composition has four parts:Allegro non troppoAllegro appassionatoAndanteAllegretto grazioso

It was first performed in 1881 in Budapest, Hungary. Brahms, the composer was the soloist that night.

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Brahms: Piano Concerto No. 2 Guest pianist Markus Groh Markus Groh was born on the 5th of January 1970 in southern Germany. He was a student of Professor Konrad Richter in Stuttgart and Professor Hans Leygraf in Berlin and Salzburg. He gained immediate world attention after winning the prestigious Queen Elisabeth International Competition in Brussels in 1995, the first German to do so. Other awards include First Prize at the 1990 Artur Schnabel Competition in Berlin. Mr. Groh divides his time between Berlin and New York.

MUSICIAN: HSO PIANIST, TERRY KLINEFELTER

Dr. Terry Klinefelter is a versatile artist, at home in jazz clubs as well as the classical concert stage. She has performed at the Kimmel Center, the Philadelphia Fringe Festival, the Chadds Ford Winery Jazz Festival, Jazz at the Springs, Endless Mountain Music Festival, and the Arcady Festival (Bar Harbor, Maine).

Known for her lyrical style and beautiful sound, she has also performed on the Philadelphia Orchestra Chamber Music Series (three appearances) and abroad in Mexico (Escuela Superior, Monterrey) and Italy (Rome Festival). She has also collaborated with dance companies, serving as pianist with the Pennsylvania Ballet in the early nineties, and more recently with the Central Pennsylvania Youth Ballet (Mozart’s “Twinkle” Variations, and Saint-Saëns’ Carnival of the Animals).

Terry has given premieres of the music of composers Manny Album (viola sonata with Manny Vardi), Haskell Small, and David Bennett Thomas (Tarry Not, written for her in 2011).

Past engagements include Chester County Pops (four performances of Rhapsody in Blue in 2011) and the Harrisburg Symphony Orchestra (Carnival of the Animals, 2012), where she currently serves as keyboardist.

Past collaborations include George Shearing (opening of Bally’s Grand, Atlantic City), crossover violinist Diane Monroe, renowned early music soprano Julianne Baird (several tours of “The Songs of Jane Austen”), Ronan Tynan (“Irish Tenors”), Denis DiBlasio, Clarice Assad, and Bill Goodwin.

Dr. Klinefelter is Assistant Professor of Piano and Jazz Studies at West Chester University, where she enjoys helping pianists reach their highest artistic potential. She is in high demand as an adjudicator for area

competitions, masterclasses, and festivals. Her own students, both collegiate and private, are a diverse group who have performed in all kinds of settings, including recitals, concerto competitions and masterclasses with Ann Schein and Fred Hersch. Past students have gone on to careers as respected music educators, church musicians, accompanists, and even touring musicians performing worldwide with Rihanna.

As a recording artist, Terry has performed as a sideman, and also on her own debut trio CD, Simple Gifts (described by the Philadelphia Inquirer as “on the cosmic cusp where Mozart might meet Mingus”). Her 2013 release, Zingaro, features original jazz compositions and standards, as well as several new songs based on the works of renowned poet Dana Gioia. It reached #30 on the national jazz radio charts, and was featured on Radio WRTI’s “Hot 11” Countdown for several months.

An alumna of West Chester University, Terry was fortunate to work with Benjamin Whitten, completing her undergraduate degree in three years summa cum laude. She holds degrees from Temple University and Catholic University of America, and is a certified yoga instructor, a discipline that informs both her teaching and performing. She has also done work in the Taubman method with Robert Durso of the Golandsky Institute.

Dr. Klinefelter is a Steinway Artist.

Get Terry’s autograph here__________________________________________________________

Questions for Terry Klinefelter(she will be at Welcome to the Concert at 7:30 Saturday (1/11) and 2:30 Sunday afternoon (1/12).

1. When did you first start playing the piano?

2. Do you play any other instruments besides piano?

3. What is your favorite piece of music (to play)?

4. How long have you played with the Harrisburg Symphony?

5. Do your children play any instruments?

6. Where do you sit on stage during HSO Masterworks concerts?

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Are there other questions you might like to ask Dr. Klinefelter?

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Activity Center - Concept: Counting in music and the color orange

Activity: Using small rubber bands, create a bracelet using a pattern such as can befound in musical compositions. Orange bands will be interspersed with another color every 4 “beats” or 8 beats or 3 beats, using some common meter signature.

See information at this website on how to make the bracelets. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4S-5zDW-z7g

Materials: Small rubber bands for making bracelets.

Concept: Music composed for a specific event, Javelin by Michael Torke

Michael Torke composed this piece for the 1996 Olympics. He also composed another work named Ecstatic Orange as a part of the Color Suite. It might be interesting to listen to this piece and try to imagine which part sounds like a javelin being thrown.

Note that there is one main family of instruments missing in this piece, no strings!! What you will hear is really something like a concert band.

Activity: Straw Javelin Throw

Rules for Javelin Straw Throw• Stand with your toes on the line on the floor• Throw your straw javelin at the target• Measure the distance that your javelin traveled• Count each inch as a measure in music and • Determine how long your distance would last in a song

Materials: Drinking straws, tape for the floor, tape measure

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Parts of the Piano:String taut metal wires made of steel or copper that vibrate when struck by hammers; most notes are made by hitting three strings at a time

Hammer the felt-covered wooden mallet that strikes the strings

Grand a piano type where the strings are stretched horizontally, parallel to the floor

Vertical a piano type where the strings are stretched vertically, perpendicular to the floor

Plate the cast iron frame that helps hold the strings in place

Hitch pin the metal screw that holds one end of the string

Tuning pin the metal screw that holds the other end of the string; this one is turned to adjust how tight the string is; there are nearly 250 tuning pins in a piano

Bridge a piece of wood placed between the strings and soundboard that sends the vibrations of the strings to the soundboard

Soundboard a large, thin piece of wood glued to the piano back; the soundboard increases the volume the strings make when they vibrate

Action the combination of several thousand moving parts that work together to make the piano work

Keyboardthe 88 wooden levers covered with plastic, wood or ivory that you press to play music

Pedal press on the pedals with your feet to soften or sustain the sound

Cabinet this is the outside of the piano and looks like a piece of furniture; it covers and supports the internal parts

Tuning adjusting the tightness of the strings to change the pitch; piano technicians use a special wrench called a tuning hammer to turn the tuning pins

Regulation adjusting all of the moving parts inside a piano to make it sound its best

©2006 Piano Technicians Guild www.ptg.org Permission to copy for educational purposes

The Harrisburg Symphony’s Welcome to the Concert program features a color wheel to go with a full season of seven Masterworks concerts. We welcome you to make your own color wheel and store it with us in the Welcome to the Concert folder OR, if you will only be attending one concert this season, you might wish to add your wheel wedge in the space provided below.

(Actual size pie wedge 1/8th of the pie.)

Terry KlinefelterHSO Piano Harrisburg Symphony