News » Bates orchestra

College, Maine Music Society gather 260 musicians for all-Brahms concert

Bates News — Fri, 16 Feb 2007 20:42:07 +0000

In a landmark event for the Androscoggin Valley cultural community, Bates College and the Maine Music Society will muster an ensemble of some 260 musicians for a performance of music by Johannes Brahms, including his monumental “Requiem,” at 8 p.m. Saturday, March 31, in the Basilica of Saints Peter and Paul, 27 Bartlett St.

The concert is the first-ever collaboration between the Maine Music Society and the college, both key players in the cultural life of the region. Choral groups from the high schools of Lewiston and Auburn are taking part in the program, as well.

Maine Gov. John Baldacci is scheduled to make opening remarks at the event.

For the general public, tickets cost $17.50 at the door and $15 in advance, available through the L/A Arts box office at 207-782-7228. Admission is free to students with valid ID, but tickets are required. To reserve student tickets or for general information about this event, please call Bates College at 207-786-6135.

To open the program, John Corrie, director of the Bates College Choir and the artistic director of the Maine Music Society, will lead four choirs in two motets by Brahms. The choirs are the Bates College Choir, the Edward Little High School Chamber Choir, the Lewiston High School Concert Choir and the Androscoggin Chorale, which is one of the music society’s two performing ensembles.

The balance of the program consists of Brahms’ “Ein Deutsches Requiem” (Op. 45), sung by the Bates and Androscoggin choirs with soprano Bonnie Scarpelli and baritone Peter Allen, both well-known to Maine audiences, as soloists. The singers will be accompanied by a 60-piece orchestra composed of the Bates College Orchestra and the Maine Chamber Ensemble, the other performing arm of the music society.

Hiroya Miura, director of the Bates orchestra, will conduct the ensemble.

First performed in its seven-movement entirety in 1869, “A German Requiem” is a consistently popular entry in Brahms’ catalog. In its sophistication and complexity, the music marked a turning point in 19th-century composition. The texts, chosen by the composer from the Lutheran Bible, deal with issues of loss, consolation and a transcendent hopefulness for humanity.

For more information about the Maine Music Society, please visit the Web site.

Third annual Mount David Summit celebrates student achievement

Bates News — Mon, 22 Mar 2004 19:08:17 +0000

Through poster presentations, panel discussions, exhibits and performances, more than 250 Bates College students will take part in the third annual Mount David Summit, starting at 2:30 p.m. Friday, April 2, in Pettengill Hall, Andrews Road.

The summit is open to the public at no charge. For more information, call the Office of the Dean of Faculty at 207-786-6065.

Established in 2002 to demonstrate the intellectual range and depth of student accomplishment at Bates, the event gives students from all classes and disciplines the opportunity to share with the community their research, service-learning and creative work.

This year’s event, the largest yet, will include more than 150 students presenting posters, talks, videos and a one-woman play; another 40 exhibiting photographs; and 60-plus performing in musical ensembles that include the college orchestra.

In sessions from 2:45 to 4:15 p.m. and 4:30 to 6 p.m., students will display and explain nearly 100 research posters in Perry Atrium, Pettengill Hall. Poster topics will run a wide gamut, including the effects of carbaryl pesticides in Maine, a case study of autism, the potential cancer-fighting effects of a chemical extracted from hyacinth beans and mathematical modeling of the 1918 influenza pandemic.

Concurrent panel presentations will take place in ground-floor classrooms in Pettengill. Topics include the acculturation of Somali students in Lewiston schools, a study of the effects of microcredit in developing countries, the abolitionist roots of Bates founder Oren Cheney and an examination of Appalachian Baptist music that includes shape-note singing by the student a cappella group Northfield.

Two performances start at 8 p.m. For her thesis project, Saida Cooper, a senior theater major from St. Albans, Maine, performs Jane Wagner and Lily Tomlin’s The Search for Signs of Intelligent Life in the Universe in Gannett Theater, Pettigrew Hall.

In the Olin Arts Center Concert Hall, Lecturer in Music Philip Carlsen conducts the Bates College Orchestra and guest artists Frank Glazer, pianist, and senior Cass Panuska, soprano, in works by Mozart, Debussy, Corigliano and Franck.

The event title “Mount David” is borrowed from a Bates landmark—the tall, wooded rocky outcropping at the corner of Mountain Avenue and College Street.

Watch for a full summit schedule at the Web site www.bates.edu/mt-david-summit.xml.

Bates College Orchestra and pioneering American composer to perform in weekend concerts

Bates News — Fri, 30 Jan 2004 13:20:44 +0000

In a big weekend for music, the Bates College music department offers a concert by the college orchestra and one by pioneering American composer Pauline Oliveros.

In a youth-oriented program of music by Britten, Ravel and Beethoven, lecturer in music Philip Carlsen conducts the Bates College Orchestra at 8 p.m. Friday, Feb. 6.

Acclaimed since the 1960s as an experimental composer and pioneer in meditative music, Oliveros appears at 8 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 7.

Both concerts are open to the public at no cost and take place in the Olin Arts Center Concert Hall, 75 Russell St. For more information, please call 207-786-6135.

Youthful abandon, joy and innocence are the themes for the Bates College Orchestra concert. The program features works by Britten and Ravel related directly to childhood, as well as an early Beethoven work, the Symphony No. 1 in C major (Op. 21).

At age 20, English composer Benjamin Britten paid an affectionate visit to his own past in “Simple Symphony,” a string-orchestra piece based on themes from songs and solo piano works he had written between ages 9 and 12. The alliterative titles of the four movements suggest the music’s character: “Boisterous Bouree,” “Playful Pizzicato,” “Sentimental Saraband” and “Frolicsome Finale.”

“Mother Goose Suite” by French composer Maurice Ravel offers five short musical vignettes for children, including the “Pavane of the Sleeping Beauty,” the sparkling Asian-influenced sounds of “Laideronette, Empress of the Pagodas” and “Conversations of Beauty and the Beast,” in which the beast’s words are expressed by the contrabassoon — “a rare visitor to the Olin Arts Center stage,” says conductor Carlsen.

Beethoven was 30 when he wrote his first symphony, but it also has a bright, youthful quality, expressed in exuberant themes, quick tempos and touches of humor.

From her early years as the first director of the Tape Music Center at Mills College to her 14 years as professor of music at the University of California, San Diego, the compositions, performances and innovations of Pauline Oliveros have defined her place in music history. Through her improvisation and electronic music, as well as her teaching and explorations of myth, ritual and meditation, Oliveros’ influence on American music has been profound.

Through “Deep Listening Pieces” and the earlier “Sonic Meditations,” Oliveros introduced the concept of incorporating all environmental sounds into performance. To make a pleasurable experience of this requires intense concentration, skilled musicianship and strong improvisational ability.

In performance Oliveros uses an accordion retuned in two different systems of “just intonation” and equipped with electronics that alter the instrument’s sound and exploit the individual characteristics of each room.

Oliveros has composed under commissions from Lincoln Center and Boston choreographer Paula Josa Jones, a frequent participant in the Bates Dance Festival. She has performed at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C., and in concert halls worldwide. In 1985 she founded The Pauline Oliveros Foundation, Inc., to support all aspects of the creative process for a worldwide community of artists.

Oliveros serves as Distinguished Research Professor of Music at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and Darius Milhaud Composer in Residence at Mills College.

Pianist Jon Nakamatsu to perform with Bates Orchestra

Bates News — Wed, 22 Oct 2003 20:01:40 +0000

Classical pianist Jon Nakamatsu, gold medalist in the 10th Van Cliburn International Piano Competition, will perform Edvard Grieg’s Piano Concerto with the Bates College Orchestra at 8 p.m. Friday, Nov. 7, in the Olin Arts Center Concert Hall, 75 Russell St.

Works by Dvorák and Mozart round out this concert conducted by Philip Carlsen, a composer and lecturer in music at Bates. Sponsored by the Mellon Learning Associates Program in the Humanities, the concert is open to the public at no charge.

Called “a major pianistic talent” by the Denver Post, Nakamatsu first performed at Bates in September 2002 in the Bates College Concert Series. A California native and former high school German teacher, he secured his place on the international scene in 1997 by winning the coveted Cliburn gold — the first American to have achieved this distinction since 1981.

Equally comfortable in solo recital, chamber ensemble or in front of an orchestra, Nakamatsu brings a formidable grasp of repertoire ranging from Bach to contemporary composers like Lukas Foss.

“Besides being an astounding technician,” wrote Chicago Tribune reviewer Dan Tucker, “Nakamatsu shows impeccable taste; he puts a high gloss on anything he plays.” Nakamatsu will make a five-day visit to Bates that culminates with the orchestral concert. “I’m quite excited about getting to know him better and all of us being on stage with him,” says Carlsen.

Composed in 1868, Edvard Grieg’s Piano Concerto in A minor (Op. 16) is a staple of the Romantic repertoire and is the work that first put this Norwegian composer on the international stage. Lively, tuneful and imaginative, the concerto is overtly indebted to Norwegian folk music and as such is an enduringly popular result of a 19th-century wave of musical nationalism.

The program also includes the Serenade in D minor, written for winds, cellos and basses by another composer associated with Romantic nationalism, Antonin Dvorák; and Wolfgang Mozart’s Symphony No. 35 (“Haffner”).

“We’re having a great time with the ‘Haffner,’ ” Carlsen says. “It’s a piece that helps the orchestra sound good — the students are working hard on it and enjoying it.” Numbering about 45 players, the orchestra will consist almost entirely of Bates students.

Bates College Choir to perform

Bates News — Fri, 21 Nov 1997 20:17:18 +0000

The Bates College Choir, under the direction of John Corrie, will perform Handel’s “Messiah” Part I at 8 p.m. Dec. 5 and Dec. 6, in the Olin Arts Center Concert Hall. The 74 student members of the Bates College Choir also will perform six a capella motets featuring composers from William Byrd to Mikhail Glinka. Accompanying the choir will be members of the Bates College Orchestra. The public is invited to attend free of charge. Please call 207-786-6135 for reserved seating.

Bates College Orchestra to perform Nov. 15

Bates News — Thu, 30 Oct 1997 15:44:01 +0000

The Bates College Orchestra, directed by William Matthews, Alice Swanson Esty Professor of Music, will perform at 8 p.m., Nov. 15, in the Olin Arts Center Concert Hall, 75 Russell St. The program includes “Summer Nights” by Stefania de Kenessey, “The Unanswered Question” by Charles Ives and “Symphony No. 3″ by Aaron Copland. The public is invited and admission is free.

Weinshenker performs with orchestra

Bates News — Wed, 12 Feb 1997 15:25:09 +0000

Lisa A. Weinshenker, of Ashby, Mass., performed with the Bates College Orchestra in a diverse program featuring African- American music and the work of Franz Schubert.

The program included a solo by Weinshenker, “Concerto for Oboe and Strings,” by Ralph Vaughn-Williams.

In honor of the 200th anniversary of the birth of the Austrian composer Franz Schubert, the orchestra will conclude with Symphony #8, “The Unfinished.”

Weinshenker, a senior music major, is the daughter of Phillip and Roberta Weinshenker, of 339 South Road. A dean’s list student, Weinshenker was a member of the Representative Assembly and spent her junior year in Great Britain. She is a 1993 graduate of Lawrence Academy in Groton.

Located midway between the coast and mountains in south-central Maine, Bates is a 142-year-old undergraduate college of the liberal arts and sciences and is rated among the top 25 national liberal-arts colleges by U.S. News & World Report. Bates offers majors in 23 academic departments and six interdisciplinary programs, and encourages independent study, research in collaboration with faculty members and participating off-campus program Bates does not require standardized-test results for admission.

Introne performs with Bates orchestra

Bates News — Wed, 12 Feb 1997 15:21:09 +0000

Lucas J. Introne, of Manlius, N.Y., performed with the Bates College Orchestra in a diverse program featuring African- American music and the work of Franz Schubert.

The program included “Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini” by Rachmaninoff, with a solo by Introne.

In honor of the 200th anniversary of the birth of the Austrian composer Franz Schubert, the orchestra concluded with Symphony #8, “The Unfinished.”

Introne, a senior biology and music major, is the son of Jim and Valerie Introne, 8503 Woodbox Road, Manlius. He is president and music director of the Bates College Deansmen, a member of the International Club, badminton club, and is currently promoting a concert in March at Bates College by Rockapella, a professional a capella group. He is a graduate of Fayetteville-Manilus High School.