Friday, March 6, 8 pm, Vermont Academy Saxtons River, VT
Sunday, March 8, 3 pm, Brattleboro Union High School, Brattleboro, VT

Windham Orchestra MADRID!
Featuring Works by Spanish Composers

On Friday evening, March 6 in Saxtons River, and Sunday afternoon, March 8 in Brattleboro the Windham Orchestra, under the direction of David Runnion, will present MADRID! featuring an all Spanish program.

MADRID! is the third concert in the Windham Orchestra’s Moscow, Munich, Madrid, Brattleboro! concert series featuring music from around the world as well as that of our local composers.

“The Windham Orchestra's passport is filling up with stamps!” declared Director David Runnion. “For this concert we go to Madrid, for a program very close to my heart, after having lived for 15 years in that wonderful country. As principal cellist of the Barcelona Symphony and the Palma Symphony, I performed all of the works on this program, some many times on tour in Europe and Japan. It's a joy to bring this evocative, romantic music to Brattleboro.”

The MADRID program includes El Amor Brujo by Manuel de Falla featuring mezzo-soprano Lisa Jablow; Symphony in D Major by Juan Crisostomo Arriaga; and La Boda de Luis Alonso by Geronimo Gimenez.

“The concert opens with some of the most typical Spanish music there is, from the Zarzuela "La Boda de Luis Alonso."  Zarzuela was the immensely popular form of musical theater that entertained Spain in the late 19th century, the Iberian answer to Gilbert & Sullivan, if you will. This operetta deals with a love triangle with a young maiden, treachery and jealousy, bullfights, and a happy ending. Very Spanish” explains Runnon.

“When the Barcelona orchestra performed this in Osaka, Japan, for an encore, we had audience members literally dancing in the aisles. The presenters were stunned, for usually Japanese audiences are very restrained and polite, and rarely dance in aisles. So be prepared: this piece may lift you out of your seat!”

Arriaga's Symphony in D is one of those rare works that is genuinely an undiscovered gem. Often called the "Spanish Mozart," Arriaga was an extraordinary child prodigy who died at a tragically young age. This symphony was written in TK when Arriaga was 17, a high school junior. By then he was already teaching harmony and composition at the Paris Conservatory. He died at 19 of tuberculosis.

“The work is more than a gem, it's one of the finest symphonies ever written by anybody. Not "Spanish-sounding" in the least, it echoes early Beethoven and Schubert, but with a sparkling originality and stunning gift for harmony. It features the wind soloists of the orchestra prominently and is truly, truly a wonderful piece of music. Go download it from iTunes, then come hear us play it live!” encourages Runnion.

DeFalla's "El Amor Brujo" is another signature Spanish work in the classical repertoire. Based on ancient Gypsy tales, it incorporates the style, melodies and rhythms of Andalusian Gypsy culture, bringing the audience right to the warmth of southern Spain.

“Featured in our performances is mezzo-soprano Lisa Jablow, whom I worked with in Friends of Music at Guilford's production of Stravinsky's "Mavra" in 2006.  She has one of the most awesome voices I've ever heard, and will be wonderful bringing this "cante jondo," the ancient gypsy style, to life in Windham County” says Runnion.

Lisa Jablow holds a D.M.A. in Choral Conducting from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where she studied under the late Dr. Robert Fountain   She has done additional study in conducting and voice at the Aspen School of Music, the Tanglewood Festival, Westminster Choir College and the Carnegie Hall Conductors’ Workshops under the likes of Pierre Boulez, Robert Shaw and Joseph Flummerfelt.

 As a vocal soloist she has appeared onstage with such organizations as New York City Opera, Opera Orchestra of New York, the New York Virtuoso Singers, the Milwaukee Symphony, Boise Opera and Skylight Opera.  Local Vermont audiences have seen her in productions or concerts with Lost Nation Theater, Vermont Opera Theater, Lamoille County Players, Opera Burlington, the Vermont Philharmonic, the Vermont Contemporary Music Ensemble, the Warebrook Contemporary Music Festival, Friends of Music at Guilford and Burlington Choral Society.  In addition, she is an alumna of the world-renowned “Internationale Ferienkurse für Neue Musik” in Darmstadt, Germany, where she was awarded top honors for the interpretation of new music.  She has appeared on the Discovery Channel in a segment of the series “Women Who Kill,” performing an excerpt from the monodrama “Erszebet,” by Vermont composer Dennis Bathory-Kitsz about his ancestor, the 16th-century serial killer Countess Erszebet Bathory.  Most recently, she performed Richard Strauss’ “Vier letzte Gesänge” with the Vermont Philharmonic this past February.

“I'm very pleased that several highly-talented young people will be joining us for this concert.  Pianist Miles Walter, who performed as soloist with us in November, will be playing the challenging piano part in the deFalla. Cellist William Appleton, from Keene, a student of Sabine Rhyne’s at the BMC Music School, is a welcome addition to our cello section, and trombonist Riley Goodmote has been performing beautifully with us all season long. As someone who came through the Windham Orchestra as a high-school student myself, it's exciting that so many local young people are now playing at the level where they can join us and perform symphonic music” said Runnion.

“For me personally this program means a great deal, bringing this Spanish music that I learned to love during my time there back to share with my friends and neighbors in Vermont. It's going to be a beautiful concert” says Runnion. “ It's also important to me that we're getting out of town for this set of concerts; an important part of the orchestra's mission is to bring symphonic music to the villages of Windham county as well as the bigger towns, so I hope people in the Saxtons River and Putney areas will really come out to support the orchestra. “

Join the Windham Orchestra as them embark on the next leg of their journey to MADRID on Friday, March 6, 8 pm, at Vermont Academy in Saxtons River, VT, and on Sunday, March 8, 3 pm, at Brattleboro Union High School in Brattleboro, VT. Tickets, $15 and $10 for students, are available from the Brattleboro Music Center, 802-257-4523, 39 Walnut Street, Brattleboro, VT.  Senior discount tickets, $6, are available for advance purchase only at the Senior Center, Brattleboro Music Center and through Windham Orchestra members. Visit bmcvt.org or windhamorchestra.net for more information.