Partners in Music / Partners in Health
BMC Faculty Duos Benefit Concert to Aid Relief Efforts in Haiti

Friday, March 26, 7:30 pm, Centre Congregational Church, Brattleboro, VT

PROGRAM:

Johannes Brahms, A Major sonata, Opus 100
Moby Pearson and Bruce Griffin

Dominick Argento, Six Elizabethan Songs
Junko Watanabe and Luba Lischinsky

Hector Villa-Lobos, Assobio a Jato (The Jet Whistle)
Robin Matathias and Sabine Rhyne

Four Popular Catalonian Songs
Kristen Carmichael-Bowers and Richard Ullman

Sergei Prokofiev, Sonata in D Major Opus 94
Alex Ogle and Vladimir Odinokikh

TICKETS: $15 / Free to BMC Music School Students under 18

STORY:

On Friday March 26, 7:30 pm, at Centre Congregational Church in Brattleboro, members of the Brattleboro Music Center’s Music School faculty will perform a benefit concert to aid ongoing relief efforts in Haiti.

Faculty chamber concerts have long been a treasured opportunity for musicians to collaborate and share their talent and musical journeys with our community. However, recent events, such as the massively destructive earthquake in Haiti, serve as valuable reminders that our community, though small and intimate, can also play an important role in the human community at large.

Music School faculty members have chosen to answer the call by donating their services and performing this special benefit concert on Friday. “Partners in Music, Partners in Health,” as the concert is aptly named, reflects the nature of the program to be performed, Duos, and the organization, Partners in Health, whose work in Haiti is being supported.

Two by two, the Music School’s talented faculty will partner and take the stage to present a wide variety of pieces including works by Brahms, Argento, Villa-Lobos, and Prokofiev, and songs from Catalonia. Featured faculty include: Kristen Carmichael-Bowers, soprano, Bruce Griffin, piano, Luba Lischynsky, piano, Robin Matathias, flute, Vladimir Odinokikh, piano, Alex Ogle, flute, Moby Pearson, violin, Sabine Rhyne, cello, Richard Ullman, guitar, and Junko Watanabe, soprano.

German born Johannes Brahms wrote the A-Major Sonata for Violin and Piano, opus 100, in 1886, while at his favorite retreat at Lake Thun in Switzerland. The most lyrical of the three glorious sonatas for violin and piano, it reflects that it was clearly written during a happy time in Brahms’ life. The sunny disposition shows throughout, and Brahms for this moment is at peace. This endearing sonata will be performed by Moby Pearson and Bruce Griffin.

Dominick Argento, born in 1927 in America but son of a Sicilian immigrant, has divided his time between America and Italy, and his music clearly reflects influences from both countries. His popular “Six Elizabethan Songs,” are so titled because the lyrics draw from that rich period in literature, using text from Thomas Nashe, Samuel Daniel, William Shakespeare, Henry Constable, and Ben Johnson. Composed in 1958, the year after Argento finished graduate school, this song set has turned out to be one his most performed pieces. Performing these songs will be Junko Watanabe and Luba Lischynsky.

Prolific Brazilian composer Heitor Villa-Lobos, is perhaps the greatest exponent of Latin American music. Having written over one thousand compositions, his music does not follow any rigid form or mechanical principles, and is often dominated by rhythmic elements. “The Jet Whistle” composed in 1950 for flute and cello, played during this concert by Robin Matathias and Sabine Rhyne, is a perfect example of Villa-Lobos’ exotic style. His choice of flute and cello offers maximum contrast between high and low, metal and wood, wind and wire, breath and bow. Within the economy of a Duo, Villa-Lobos paints an astonishingly vivid canvas. The title comes from a name Villa-Lobos gave to a particular novel technique the flutist must employ in the fast glissandi of the third movement sounding to him like a jet plane.

From the region of Spain called Catalonia, we will hear a set of four “Catalonian Folk Songs” arranged by Manuel Garcia Morante for soprano and guitar, to be sung by Kristen Carmichael-Bowers with guitarist, Richard Ullman. Catalonia managed to preserve its linguistic and cultural personality through the centuries, which eventually produced a whole body of elaborate and refined popular songs. 'Song of the birds' is a song associated with Pablo Casals who used this melody as a patriotic hymn during periods of persecution and dictatorship in Spain. ‘Beautiful mountains' evokes the impressive mountain landscapes of the Pyrenees. 'The nightingale' is asked to fly to France to give the child's love to her mother but not to her father who arranged a bad marriage for her. 'The sailor' takes place in Renaissance Catalonia and tells a strange story. A woman asks a passing sailor for silk for a handkerchief. He falls in love with her and abducts her. She voices her despair at the thought of spending her life with a sailor but he reveals he is the heir to the throne of England.

Russian composer Sergei Prokofiev spoke of a special fondness for the flute after spending time in the U.S. in the 1920’s where he encountered what he called the “heavenly sound” of Georges Barrère, then principal flutist of the New York Symphony Orchestra and teacher at the Juilliard School. Two decades later in 1942, during some of the darkest days of World War II in the Soviet Union, Prokofiev wrote the magnificent Sonata for Flute and Piano in D major, which will be performed here by Alex Ogle and Vladimir Odinokikh. Interestingly, this sonata while showing Prokofiev at his most elegant, lyrical, witty and playful, did not gain wide popularity until the composer produced a violin version for his friend and chess partner David Oistrakh. Flutists and violinists equally embrace this sonata today.

The Partners in Music, Partners in Health Concert will benefit relief efforts provided by Partners in Health, whose model emphasizes collaboration with the Haitian Ministry of Health, non-governmental organizations, and community groups to provide medical services. In order to meet the medical needs of those left homeless by the earthquake, Partners in Health and its sister organization, Zanmi Lasante, are currently running mobile medical clinics in four settlement sites where tens of thousands of displaced earthquake survivors are now living. The clinics are currently providing comprehensive primary health care services to an estimated population of 80,000-100,000 displaced Haitians.

Come hear fine music and support, nearly effortlessly, Haitian relief efforts during the BMC Music School Faculty Partners in Music, Partners in Health Benefit Concert on Friday, March 26, 7:30 pm, at Centre Congregational Church in Brattleboro. General admission tickets, $15, are available in advance and at the door. BMC music school students under 22 will be admitted free. For tickets please call the BMC at (802) 257-4523.