The University of Kansas Symphony Orchestra Carolyn Watson, director of orchestral activities Leandro Cardoso, assistant conductor Il Guarany Overture Carlos Gomes (1836-1896) Clarinet Concerto Artie Shaw (1910-2004) Petar Smilev, soloist Winner of the KU School of Music 2020 Concerto Competition Intermission Variations on a Theme by Haydn, Op. 56 Johannes Brahms (1833-1897)

Thursday, March 25, 2021 7:30 p.m., Streaming from the Lied Center of Kansas

Program Notes and Biographies Carlos Gomes – Il Guarany Overure The Brazilian composer A. Carlos Gomes was born into a musical family and received his early musical training from his father, a bandmaster in Campinas. He began composing at a young age and completed a substantial mass by age eighteen. The local success of two early operas prompted the Brazilian emperor to sponsor Gomes’ attendance at the Milan Conservatory in Italy, where he studied composition with Lauro Rossi. Today, Gomes is best remembered for his fifth opera, Il Guarany. The work was premièred in 1870 and was based on the novel O Guarani by José de Alencar. The somewhat convoluted but not atypical plot involves an attack on a Portuguese nobleman’s castle by Aymoré Indians led by adventurers in love with the nobleman’s daughter. The attack may have been provoked by the daughter’s preference instead for the son of the Guaraní chief, with whom she escapes. While the plot might employ several seemingly overdone nineteenth-century opera clichés, the score was considered very successful at the time, in part due to Gomes’ treatment of Brazilian folk melodies. Il Guarany was performed regularly throughout Europe for several years after its première at the La Scala Opera House in Milan. Giuseppe Verdi, upon hearing the opera in 1872, referred to it as the work of a “truly musical genius.” © Donald Patterson, 2019 Artie Shaw – Clarinet Concerto Artie Shaw was an American clarinetist, composer, bandleader, actor and author of both fiction and non-fiction. Widely regarded as "one of jazz's finest clarinetists", Shaw led one of the United States' most popular big bands in the late 1930s through the early 1940s. In New York, he became a session musician through the early 1930s. From 1925–36, Shaw performed with many bands and orchestras; from 1926 to 1929, he worked in Cleveland and established a lasting reputation as music director and arranger for an orchestra led by the violinist Austin Wylie. In 1929 and 1930, he played with Irving Aaronson's Commanders, where he was exposed to symphonic music, which he would later incorporate in his arrangements. The Concerto for Clarinet is a composition for clarinet and jazz orchestra by Artie Shaw. Before his enlisted service in World War II, Artie Shaw was tasked with providing music for the movie Second Chorus which featured Fred Astaire. The film proved to be a failure, but Shaw extracted one of his works from the soundtrack, the Swing Concerto, and reworked it into his Concerto for Clarinet. The concerto was completed in 1940. The piece ends with a "legendary" altissimo C. The piece is a "pastiche thrown together out of some boogie-woogie blues, clarinet-over-tom tom interludes, a commonplace riff build-up towards the end, all encased in opening and closing virtuoso cadenzas for the leader's clarinet", according to Gunther Schuller. © U.S. Marine Band, 2016 Brahms – Variations on a Theme By Haydn, Op. 56 When Brahms was forty he decided to write a set of variations (one version for orchestra and one version for two pianos), based on one of Haydn’s wind Divertimenti, called a “Feldpartitai”. The composer’s selection for the foundational subject was “Choral St. Antoni.” Some have questioned the authenticity of Haydn’s authorship of the choral work, and in 1951 the noted scholar H.C Robbins Landon proclaimed in the Saturday Review of Literature that “the Feldpartita used by Brahms is spurious…not one note was by Haydn. One of his students perhaps Pleyel, was the real author.” Regardless of authorship, Brahms was taken by the tune and its irregular structure, built on five rather than the usual four measures in length. This became the basic theme for his eight variations with a concluding passacaglia and finale. Jonathan Kramer wrote that the orchestral version of the Variations on a Theme by Haydn is unique because it is “apparently the first set of independent (not part of a larger work) variations ever composed by anyone for orchestra.” After the success of his Variations (for orchestra), Brahms finally felt equipped and ready to write for the orchestral medium. This confidence marked a fertile re-direction in his career. Opus 56 is structured as follows: Opening presentation of the main theme (in oboes and bassoons), which is divided in two parts and repeated. The orchestration echoes that of the Haydn Feldpartita. Variation I (Poco più animato) is a fluid setting with violins weaving polyrhythmic tracery over strongly marked chords. Variation II (Più Vivace) steps up the pace and focuses on the dotted rhythm of the foundational theme. Clarinets and bassoons in sixths high. Variation III (con moto), a long melodic line flowing in sixteenth notes and eighth notes is featured providing a smooth version of the original tune. Oboes and bassoons converse above a passage in double octaves for lower strings. Variation IV (Andante con moto) is cast in a poetic minor mode. The warmth of the solo French horn and oboes singing in octaves over supportive violas reflects a wistful, almost sentimental treatment.

Variation V (Vivace), the major mode returns in a scherzo-like 6/8 meter. The music dances in a light-hearted, care free mood with winds paired in thirds. Variation VI (Vivace) is a bright march marked by hunting style fanfares. Variation VII (Grazioso) sings in a lilting siciliano style. Flutes and violas provide a unique pairing. Variation VIII (Presto non troppo) Piccolo, clarinet and bassoons enter delicately on top of muted strings to daintily recall the main idea. The sweetness and delicacy of this variation is a dramatic foil for the weighty, majestic finale. Finale (Andante) — Brahms concludes the Variations with a massive passacaglia using the five measure section of the theme for its repeating feature. The foundation is repeated twelve times. (This old form was one of Brahms’ favorites, which he used also in his Fourth Symphony). The music begins with a hymn-like statement derived from the Haydn choral, which grows steadily in complexity. Contrapuntal lines swirl above the basic thought, wind into a powerful elaboration, and burst into a roaring climax with fortissimo brass stating the theme over rushing scales in winds and strings. © Marianne Williams Tobias, 2016 Leandro Cardoso | Conductor Leandro Cardoso is a Brazilian conductor currently pursuing his master's degree in orchestral conducting at the University of Kansas under Dr. Carolyn Watson's tutelage. He is the Co-Director of the University Orchestra in Lawrence and serves as the assistant conductor at the University of Kansas Symphony Orchestra. In the United States, he has also served as a cover conductor at Greater Kansas City's Philharmonia. He is the Athos Chamber Orchestra's founder and principal conductor, a group dedicated to premiering contemporary works by Brazilian composers. The group held its first concert in April 2018 - Containers: Multidimensional Paths, with an acclaimed reception at the Palace of Arts in Belo Horizonte. Leandro also develops a solid work as an arranger, writing for everything from chamber groups to the symphony orchestra. Leandro previously studied with renowned Brazilian conductor Marcos Arakaki and with professors Lincoln Andrade, Arnon Oliveira, and Iara Fricke Matte in the Orchestral Conducting Course at the Federal University of Minas Gerais (UFMG). He always sought to improve. He took courses and masterclasses in orchestral direction with internationally acclaimed conductors, such as Cristian Măcelaru, Miguel Harth-Bedoya, and Sarah Ioannides. Petar Smilev | Soloist Petar Smilev is a Macedonian clarinetist who is working on his Doctorate of Musical Arts Degree at the University of Kansas, studying with one of the most prolific clarinetists in the world Dr. Stephanie Zelnick. He previously studied with Stojan Dimov and Stojo Miserlioski, while he was pursuing his Bachelor’s and Master’s Degrees in music at the “Ss Cyril and Methodius University” and Florida Atlantic University. He was elected to play with the Macedonian Youth Orchestra “Sasha Nikolovski – Gjumar” as a soloist in 2015, performing in Ohrid and Skopje as a part of the Festivals “Ohrid Summer 2015” and “Skopje Summer 2015”. Recognized as one of the most enthusiastic young Macedonian clarinetist as the principal clarinet of the Symphony Orchestra of “Ss. Cyril and Methodius”, he was invited by the Macedonian National Theater. He played principal clarinet of a clarinet quartet for the European theatrical performance between the Macedonian National Theater and the Polish Theater “Helena Modrzejewska” called “Prekinata Odiseja” (Interrupted Odyssey). performing it in more than twenty cities in Macedonia and Poland. In his last year of his undergraduate studies, he worked in the Macedonian National Opera and Ballet for a season as a second clarinetist. He performed in several European countries such as Macedonia, Serbia, Poland, Sweden and Croatia. Petar has won several competitions such as: Ss. Cyril and Methodius University Concerto Competition 2017, Florida Atlantic University Concerto Competition 2018, and University of Kansas Concerto Competition 2020. He has participated in many master classes with world renowned clarinetists such as Matthias Mueller, Stephen Williamson, Mariam Adam, Boris Allakhverdyan and Madelyn Moore.

The University of Kansas Symphony Orchestra

Violin Yi-Miao Huang – Concertmaster

Ilvina Gabrielian Diego Zapata Abby Atwood

Tristan McGehee Dmitrii Tulupov

Xiaohui Yan Daniel Hanneman Mariana Heatwole Anna Marburger

Viola

Ricardo Cavalcante Joseph Chan

Nicolás Arguello Calista Brunett

Emily Lavely Jonathan Hess

Grace Hart Ali Pittman

Nicholas Dang

Cello James Alexander

Josiah Cordes Arabella Schwerin

Diana Unruh Vincent Hsiung

Abbey King Hunter Turner

Regan Reed Gabriela Ruiz

Matthew Wellman Ben Farney

Bass

Minjoo Hwangbo Caitlin Crosby

William Kleemann Colin Oberg

Flute

Chloe Descher Brenna Wiinanen Mackenzie Dugger

Oboe

Wesley Boehm Maya Griswold

Clarinet

Kaitlyn Gerde Katherine Anderson

Bennett Morgan

Bassoon Megan Gordon William Holke Ryan Morris

Saxophone

Tyler Walker James Lawhn

Sophia Hollman Chris Ord

Horn

Sam Spicer Caleb Kraemer Carter Harrod Aubrey Fossett

Trumpet

Tyler McTavish Oscar Haro

Tyler Parkridge Rafniel Rios

Trombone Sam Rosenbaum

Brady Gell

Bass Trombone David Paff

Tuba

Bryan Johnson

Timpani Ethan Martin

Percussion Nate Bachta

Thomas Parnell Tom Fabing