November concert brings music, movies and dance to stage

Music, dance and the movies come together along with some very special guests for the next University of South Carolina Symphony Orchestra concert. Acclaimed violinist Michael Ludwig is the soloist for “The Red Violin” concerto by John Corigliano and dancers from the Columbia Classical Ballet will join the orchestra as it performs the second act of “The Nutcracker.” The concert is Tuesday, Nov. 15 at 7:30 p.m. at the Koger Center for the Arts.

Just a few months ago Michael Ludwig gave the Russian premiere “The Red Violin” with the St. Petersburg State Symphony Orchestra and in October performed it with the National Philharmonic. “The Red Violin” concerto grew out of Corigliano’s Academy Award-winning soundtrack for the 1998 film of the same name that spans three centuries and five countries as it tells the story of a mysterious violin and its many owners. Corigliano completed the four-movement concerto in 2003.

Ludwig has long experience performing “The Red Violin” and recorded it in 2009 with the Buffalo Philharmonic conducted by music director JoAnn Falletta for the Naxos label. His performance in St. Petersburg was made at the request of Corigliano who has called Ludwig “an extraordinary artist who merges world-class technique with a world-class interpretive mind.”

Corigliano is one of the best-known contemporary composers whose varied styles have garnered many honors. The composer was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for his Second Symphony in 2001, won a 2000 Grammy Award for “Mr. Tambourine Man: Seven Poems of Bob Dylan” for soprano and orchestra, was commissioned by the Metropolitan Opera to write “The Ghost of Versailles” in 1991, and has scored several movies including “Altered States” and “Revolution.”

This will be the second time Ludwig, concertmaster of the Buffalo Philharmonic, has performed with the USC Symphony Orchestra.

“He’s a first-class performer and a heck of a nice guy,” said Dr. Donald Portnoy, music director. “There’s warmth in his playing and real insight into the music he is performing. There is always a musical idea he is trying to get across to the audience and he does that.”

Corigliano will be paired with another composer who could write music for many purposes – Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky. Most people know his music through “The Nutcracker” and although thousands of people attend “The Nutcracker” ballet each year, they rarely get a chance to hear the music played live. The USC Symphony will be in full force for this work with nearly 70 players on stage.

“We thought it would be nice for people to be able to hear it as Tchaikovsky intended,” said Portnoy.

For “The Nutcracker” the orchestra will be joined by Columbia Classical Ballet dancers performing excerpts from 1892 ballet by choreographers Marius Petipa and Lev Ivanov. The ballet is set at Christmas time during a magical night. In the second act the Nutcracker, who has been transformed into a prince, and the girl Clara journey to the Kingdom of Sweets where sugarplum fairies dance. During the 1960s “The Nutcracker” became a holiday dance tradition in the United States.

The second act includes the Spanish, Arabian, Chinese and Russians dances, as well as the “Waltz of the Flowers,” the “Pas de Deux” and “Sugar-Plum Fairy Dance,” the last of which uses the celesta, a keyboard/percussion instrument invented in 1886. The clear bell-like tone of the celesta is immediately recognizable. Although most strongly associated with the Sugar Plum dance, many people also know its sound through the “Hedwig Theme” from the “Harry Potter” movies.

Don’t miss this concert of musical masterpieces from the 19^th and 21^st centuries.

Tickets are $25 for the general public, $20 for USC faculty and staff and seniors; and $8 for students. To purchase tickets go to capitoltickets.com or call (803) 251-2222.  

USC Symphony soloist lives in Columbia but he’s performed around the globe

Phillip Bush, who will perform with the USC Symphony Orchestra Oct. 18, is considered a musician’s musician.

"He's such a monster player, but wears it so lightly," said Ken May, a musician and director of the S.C. Arts Commission. "He just comes across as a real normal guy, but with amazing chops and an amazing resume."

Bush and his wife Lynn Kompass, an associate professor at the USC School of Music, and their son Spencer live in the Old Shandon neighborhood of Columbia. He will perform Beethoven’s Concerto No. 4 at the Oct. 18 USC Symphony concert.

The pianist spent his early years in New Jersey where his father worked for a book publisher and played jazz and his mother, a native of Germany, usually had Mozart and Schumann on the record player. Young Phillip listened and memorized and started music classes at 5. In 1967, the family moved to Charlotte.

When he was 10, Bush heard a concert that would lead to his love of 20^th century music. The New York Philharmonic came to town and played Bela Bartok's 1936 "Music for Strings, Percussion and Celeste." That sent him scurrying for more music by Bartok and other early 20th-century composers.

After high school he headed to the Peabody Institute Conservatory where he studied with Leon Fleisher, an acclaimed pianist. He didn't consider himself a standout student and was reluctant to take on and fully appreciate the older music. Warming up to the older composers took time. Bach and Beethoven, especially the dark edginess of the latter, weren't too difficult. Early classical composers -- Mozart and Haydn -- were another matter.

"It took me a while to see the sense of invention in the works, and now they're some of my favorites," he said.

Upon graduating Peabody, Bush headed to the Banff Centre in Canada for post-graduate studies. In the nonstructured environment, Bush developed his discipline. That's also where he met composer Steve Reich, who was a visiting artist.

"I cajoled the school into letting me set up a performance of Reich's 'Six Pianos' since we had plenty of pianos there," Bush said. Reich came and heard it, and Bush followed him around all week "like a groupie." After Banff, he moved to New York, where Reich hired him as a rehearsal player. A few years later, he was part of the group. He also worked with dancer/choreographer/composer Laura Dean and through her met other new music composers and performers, including Philip Glass. He performed with both the Reich and Glass ensembles for most of the next 20 years.

During his years in New York, Bush frequently performed with the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center and Bargemusic. He has played at festivals from Cape Cod to Scotland and for eight years was in the piano group Typhoon, which topped the classical music charts in Japan for several years. During the mid-1990s, he started performing with Present Music, based in Milwaukee, and in 2000 began teaching at the University of Michigan School of Music. At Michigan, he met Kompass, who was finishing her doctorate. She got a job at the USC School of Music and Bush settled here shortly after the two married about four years ago.

"This is a pleasant city to live in, and I've gotten to know a lot of people in the creative community," he said.

He’s been very active in Columbia playing music from many eras in a wide range of settings: Bach and Beethoven at Trinity Episcopal Cathedral, Charles Ives, Philip Glass, Olivier Messiaen and John Zorn at the USC Southern Exposure series, and Glass and Bach at The White Mule nightclub. Each summer he goes to Vermont where he is music director of The Chamber Music Conference and Composers' Forum of the East. His most recent recording “The Complete Sonatas for Violin and Piano” by Beethoven was released earlier this year.

California violist Helen Callus has performed with Bush several times including for the NPR program “St. Paul Sunday.”

"He loves what he does, and he also has that balance of being a nice person and sensitive," said "His range is limitless. I know from playing with him that he can play anything beautifully."

Two singers lauded in The Times sing out again in Menotto’s comic opera “The Telephone”

Bass-baritone Jacob Will and soprano Diana Amos performed Gian Carlo Menotti’s comic opera “The Telephone” at the Piccolo Spoleto Festival last spring and got a nice review in the The New York Times.

“Diana Amos and Jacob Will gave the piece a nice workout. Ms. Amos was especially impressive in passages that wove laughter or other nonverbal expression into the musical line,” said The Times.

The opera was part of an all-Menotti concert by the Piccolo Spoleto Festival Orchestra conducted by USC Symphony Orchestra music director Donald Portnoy. Now the two singers will again join Maestro Portnoy for a concert performance of the one-act opera, this time with the USC Symphony Orchestra. The opera is part of the Oct. 18 concert which also includes the “Capriccio Italien” by Tchaikovsky and Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 4.

Diana Amos is an instructor of voice at Columbia College and a graduate student in vocal performance at USC. She has had a long career in Europe, performing leading roles with more than thirty-five European companies including Queen of the Night in Mozart's “The Magic Flute” at the Berlin State Opera, Olympia in “The Tales of Hoffman” at the Semper Opera in Dresden and at the Cologne Opera, and Zerbinetta in “Ariadne auf Naxos” at the Staatsoper in Hannover, Germany.

Since arriving at USC Ms. Amos has sung the title role in “Miss Havisham's Wedding Night” and the Fairy Godmother in Massenet’s “Cendrillon” with Opera at USC. Amos received a Bachelor of Music degree in voice from the Oberlin Conservatory of Music in Ohio and a vocal performance diploma from the Hochschule fuer Musik in Cologne, Germany.

An associate professor in the USC School of Music, Mr. Will has appeared with the Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra under the baton of Vladamir Ashkenazy and with the Cabrillo Festival under the baton of Dennis Russell Davies. He has sung the title role in “Le Nozze di Figoro” with the New York City Opera and performed with the Vancover Opera, the Bavarian State Opera and the San Francisco Opera. He has also appeared at the International Bach Festival of Schaffhausen, Switzerland and with the Vienna Symphonic Orchestra. He made his New York Philharmonic debut as soloist in the American Premiere of the Messa per Rossini, a performance televised live nationwide.

An experienced concert artist, Mr. Will has sung for many years with the Zürich Opera appearing in roles such as Raimondo in “Lucia di Lammermoor,” Mustafa in “L'Italiana in Algeri” and Colline in “La Boheme.”

The Hartsville, S.C., native studied at Furman University, USC and the Cincinnati Conservatory of Music.

When first performed in 1947, “The Telephone” was coupled with the darker Menotti opera “The Medium.” The two were so successful they were transferred to Broadway where they ran for 211 performances. In “The Telephone” Ben has come to Lucy’s apartment to propose, but every time he gets ready to pop the question she makes or takes a telephone call. He ends up phoning her with his proposal.

Acclaimed pianist Phillip Bush performs Beethoven with the USC Symphony Orchestra

When Phillip Bush settled in Columbia several years ago the city got a gift of regular concerts by the pianist. He’ll make his first appearance with the University of South Carolina Symphony Orchestra Tuesday, Oct. 18 performing Ludwig van Beethoven’s Piano Concert No. 4 in G major. This also marks his debut performing with an orchestra in South Carolina

The concert at the Koger Center will also have another guest - Italian conductor and composer Nino Lepore leading the orchestra in “Capriccio Italien” by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky and the Beethoven. The orchestra honors the 100th anniversary of Gian Carlo Menotti’s birth with a concert version of his opera “The Telephone” which will be conducted by music director Donald Portnoy.

For many years Bush was a member of the Steve Reich and Philip Glass ensembles and has appeared as soloist with Osaka (Japan) Century Orchestra, Cincinnati Symphony and Houston Symphony. Bush has performed at the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center and New York's Bargemusic, and with the Kronos Quartet, the Miami String Quartet, and members of the Emerson, Guarneri, and St. Lawrence quartets. From 1993 to 1998 he was founding director of MayMusic in Charlotte and is music director of The Chamber Music Conference and Composers' Forum of the East held each summer in Vermont. His most recent recording “The Complete Sonatas for Violin and Piano” by Beethoven was released earlier this year.

Since coming to Columbia in 2004, Bush has played music from many eras in a wide range of settings: the Bach and Beethoven at Trinity Episcopal Cathedral, Charles Ives, Philip Glass, Olivier Messiaen and John Zorn at the USC Southern Exposure series, and Glass and Bach at The White Mule nightclub. Not only is this the first time he has performed with the USC Symphony Orchestra - this is the first time he has performed with an orchestra in South Carolina.

The G major Concerto, written between 1804 and 1806, is considered the most gently-spoken and poetic of all Beethoven concertos.

“In a lot of ways it’s my favorite piano concerto,” Bush said. “It has a shimmering kind of beauty and is a pretty happy piece. It is revolutionary in its own way, not like some of the other more radical latter works, but it breaks with other concerto forms from that time.”

Bush became intimately familiar with the concerto while studying at Peabody Conservatory with Leon Fleisher who in 1959 recorded what is still considered the definitive version of the concerto. Bush has performed the concerto several times, the last time with the Charlotte Symphony Orchestra in the 1980s.

The concerto is well-known for its unusual solo piano opening. Although only 15 seconds long, it has been approached in many ways and nearly analyzed to death.  

“It is such an unusual and special moment that everyone makes a big deal of it,” Bush said. “As I’ve gotten older I think of it as a simple statement.” Still, he said, “it is a very important statement and sort of cosmic.”

The public premiere of the concerto in 1808 was part of a famous concert in which Beethoven made his last appearance as soloist with an orchestra. The concerto was largely ignored during Beethoven’s lifetime, until the Felix Mendelssohn rescued it from obscurity in 1836.

The piano introduces the singing character of the work and the ensuing themes in the first movement also have a lyrical quality. Many of the harmonic episodes of the movement are also forecast in the opening bars. The slow movement (widely associated with the imagery of Orpheus taming the Furies) sets up a restless dialogue between soloist and orchestra. The opening of the third movement features a harmonic juxtaposition similar to that in the first: the rondo begins softly in the “wrong key.” The full ensemble states the rondo theme and several intervening episodes provide some of the most ebullient music in the concerto with trumpets and timpani reinforcing these passages. Near the end of the movement after the cadenza, the work seems begins to subside peacefully, then ends with a triumphant flourish.

Bush will give a pre-concert talk at 6:45 p.m. at the rehearsal hall of the Koger Center.

Gian Carlo Menotti, a native of Italy but considered an American composer, is known to many as founder of the Festival of Two Worlds in Spoleto, Italy, and the Spoleto Festival USA in Charleston. Before that he was a ground-breaking opera composer. “The Telephone,” a one-act comedy in English, was first performed in 1947 along with the composer’s tragic “The Medium” in New York. The two were so successful they were transferred to Broadway where they ran for 211 performances. In “The Telephone” Ben has come to Lucy’s apartment to propose, but every time he gets ready to pop the question she makes or takes a telephone call. He ends up phoning her with his proposal. The performance features baritone Jacob Will, an assistant professor at the USC School of Music, and soprano Diana Amos, a graduate student at the school who has had an extensive European career. In June the two performed “The Telephone” during an all-Menotti concert conducted by USC Symphony Orchestra music director Donald Portnoy at the Piccolo Spoleto Festival in Charleston.

“Diana Amos and Jacob Will gave the piece a nice workout,” wrote The New York Times. “Ms. Amos was especially impressive in passages that wove laughter or other nonverbal expression into the musical line.”

Tchaikovsky was inspired to write the “Capriccio Italien” during an extended stay in Rome during carnival season when the music – including revile bugles from a nearby military barracks - filled the air. The work was premiered in 1880 in Moscow. Guest conductor Lepore has conducted orchestras from Mexico to Portugal to Poland and composed soundtracks for several films.

7:30 p.m. at the Koger Center for the Arts, Assembly and Greene streets, Columbia. Tickets $25; $20 for seniors and USC faculty and staff; $8 for students. For more information and to purchase tickets call (803) 251-2222 or go to http://www.capitoltickets.com

USC Symphony opens the season with long-time collaborator Vadim Gluzman

It’s not every day that a musician of Vadim Gluzman’s international stature stops in Columbia. Just a few weeks after Gluzman performs with the University of South Carolina Symphony Orchestra the violinist will be on stage with the London Philharmonic and the Royal Scottish National Orchestra.

The violinist joins the orchestra Thursday, Sept. 22 to perform Brahms’ Violin Concerto in D Major.  The concert opens with The Star Spangled Banner and includes Beethoven’s Symphony No. 5 in C minor. The concert takes place at 7:30 p.m. at the Koger Center.

Orchestra artistic director Donald Portnoy first brought Gluzman in to play with the orchestra a decade ago when Gluzman was in his 20s.

“His career has just blossomed,” Portnoy said.

Since then, Gluzman has returned regularly to perform with the university orchestra regularly, but he is in such demand that it’s not easy to get him.

“He really enjoys coming here,” Portnoy said, “and he’s always a joy to make music with.”

The USC Symphony is the only university or college level orchestra with which Gluzman performs.

“
I always like coming there and very  much enjoy working with young people,” Gluzman said recently. “Another reason of course is Dr. Portnoy who is a musician of incredible integrity.”

A native of Ukraine, Vadim Gluzman began studying the violin at the age of seven. His family moved to Israel in 1990, where he met Isaac Stern who became a supporter and friend.

He has appeared regularly with the Chicago Symphony, Israel Philharmonic, and the San Francisco, Cincinnati, Detroit and Houston orchestras. His most recent recording of music by Max Bruch, released in March, was a BBC Music Magazine pick of the month for July.  

Brahms wrote the 1878 concerto, his only violin concerto, specifically for the Joseph Joachim, a lifelong friend who provided the composer with advice when it came to the violin. The three movements are technically demanding with multiple stopping, broken chords, rapid scale passages, and rhythmic variation, but also contains tender lyrical passages and a touch of Hungarian folk rhythms.

A video of Gluzman performing the concerto can be seen at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TBLeHSFuKuY

Symphony No. 5 in C Minor by Ludwig van Beethoven is one of the most popular and best-known compositions in all of classical music. Almost everyone knows the stunning four note, twice-repeated opening (short-short-short-long) motif. The composer began work on the symphony in 1804 and it was premiered to little notice four years later. A performance in 1810 though caught the attention of critic E.T.A. Hoffmann who called it “the indescribably profound, magnificent symphony.” From that point on the work has remained popular and influential.  

All concerts take place at 7:30 p.m. at the Koger Center, Assembly and Greene streets, Columbia.  Season tickets $115; $85 for seniors and USC faculty and staff; $42 for students. Individual tickets $25; $20 for seniors and USC faculty and staff; $8 for students. To purchase tickets call (803) 251-2222 or go to  http://www.capitoltickets.com.

For more information about Mr. Gluzman visit his website at http://www.vadimgluzman.com/

Welcome to our 2011-2012 season.

Preparations for our first concert of the season have begun! As always, Dr. Donald Portnoy will be leading the talented musicians of the USC Symphony to perform the finest orchestral literature with acclaimed guest artists.

Thursday, September 22, 2011- Vadim Gluzman, violin

Francis Scott Key- Star-Spangled Banner

Beethoven- Symphony No. 5 in C Minor, op. 67

Brahms- Violin Concerto in D Major, op. 77

Tuesday, October 18, 2011- Phillip Bush, piano

Tribute To Gian Carlo Menotti

Menotti- “March” and ”Shepherd’s Dance” from Amahl

and the Night Visitors

Menotti- The Telephone Diana Amos, soprano

                                       Jacob Will, baritone

Beethoven- Piano Concerto No. 4 in G Major, op. 58

Tuesday, November 15, 2011- Michael Ludwig, violin

The Red Violin 

Tchaikovsky- Nutcracker Ballet, Act II

Corigliano- The Red Violin

Tuesday, February, 14, 2012- Amoré

This Valentine’s Day program will feature three vocal soloists singing romantic highlights from movies, theatre, and the operatic world.

Tuesday, March 13, 2012

- Winners of the USC Concerto-Aria Competition

Each academic year, the USC Symphony Orchestra sponsors a concerto-aria competition. Any sophomore, junior, senior, master’s, or graduate certificate student enrolled at the University of South Carolina and studying applied music on the Columbia campus may compete. Winners perform with the USC Symphony Orchestra, and the names of winners are engraved on the concerto-aria plaque, which is on permanent display in the USC School of Music. Categories are strings, woodwinds, and brass.

Prokofiev- Symphony No. 5, op. 100

Thursday, April 12, 2012- Defiant Requiem-Verdi Requiem

Tina Stallard, soprano 

Janet Hopkins, mezzo-soprano 

Walter Cuttino, tenor 

Jacob Will, baritone 

Larry Wyatt, choral director 

Murry Sidlin, guest conductor

All concerts will take place at 7:30pm at the Koger Center for the Arts.

With a season as great as this, season subscriptions are a steal! For ticket information visit: http://www.music.sc.edu/ea/orchestra/schedule.html

Interested in being a donor? Visit: http://www.music.sc.edu/ea/orchestra/form_06-07_donor.pdf

For more information about the the 2011-2012 season, see our brochure: http://www.music.sc.edu/ea/orchestra/USC%20Symphony%202011-12%20brochure.pdf