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The Program
Anna Clyne - Restless Oceans
SPARK! Premieres
Beatrice Luongo - Horses
Teresa Wheeler - The Serpent’s Delight
Sam Wu - Hydrosphere
Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov - Scheherazade
Concert Snapshots
Restless Oceans is based on and named after the Audre Lorde poem A Women Speaks.
Sam Wu is a Visiting Assistant Professor of Theory and Composition at Whitman College.
Launched in 2022, SPARK! Premieres gives young composers from our SPARK! Composition Course a chance to have their music performed by the Walla Walla Symphony.
Scheherazade is inspired by the collection of Middle Eastern and Indian stories known as The Thousand and One Nights (or The Arabian Nights).
Want to learn more? Click the button below to explore articles about the composers and the pieces, and read the program notes.
Explore the Music
WINE SPONSOR
Wine from our wine sponsor will be available before the concert and during intermission for $5/glass (all proceeds benefit the Walla Walla Symphony).
Dig Deeper
Composer Anna Clyne, a radical melodist with a painter's eye (NPR)
Anna Clyne, a Composer Who Creates With Images (New York Times)
5 Questions to Anna Clyne (I Care If You Listen by American Composers Forum)
Visual Music: The “blurred boundaries” of Sam Wu’s compositions (Harvard Magazine)
The Story of ‘the Most Underrated Composer in History’ (New York Times)
Program Notes
ANNA CLYNE
Born March 9, 1980, in London, England
Restless Oceans (2018)
Last WWS performance: First performance at this concert
Approximate length: 3 minutes
This work was premiered on January 22, 2019, at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, by the Taki Concordia Orchestra conducted by Marin Alsop. It is scored for two flutes, two oboes, two clarinets, two bassoons, two horns, two trumpets, timpani, percussion, and strings.
Described as a “composer of uncommon gifts and unusual methods” in a New York Times profile and as “fearless” by NPR, GRAMMY-nominated Anna Clyne is one of the most in-demand composers today, working with orchestras, choreographers, filmmakers, and visual artists around the world. Clyne was named by Bachtrack as one of the top ten most performed contemporary composers in the world and the most performed living female British composer in both 2022 and 2023.
Clyne has been commissioned and presented by the world’s most dynamic and revered arts institutions, including the Barbican, Carnegie Hall, Kennedy Center, Los Angeles Philharmonic, MoMA, Philharmonie de Paris, Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, San Francisco Ballet, and the Sydney Opera House; and her music has opened such events as the Edinburgh International Festival, The Last Night of the Proms, and the New York Philharmonic’s season.
Clyne often collaborates on creative projects across the music industry, including Between the Rooms, a film with choreographer Kim Brandstrup and LA Opera, as well as the Nico Project at the Manchester International Festival, a stage work about pop icon Nico’s life that featured Clyne’s reimagining of The Marble Index for orchestra and voices. Clyne has also reimagined tracks from Thievery Corporation’s The Cosmic Game for the electronica duo with orchestra, and her music has been programmed by such artists as Björk. Other recent collaborators include such notable musicians as Jess Gillam, Jeremy Denk, Martin Fröst, Pekka Kuusisto, and Yo-Yo Ma.
Clyne’s works are frequently choreographed for dance, with recent projects including the world premiere of choreographer Pam Tanowitz’s dance set to Breathing Statues for the Royal Ballet in London and performances of DANCE by the San Francisco Ballet with choreography by Nicolas Blanc. Her fascination with visual art has inspired several projects including ATLAS, inspired by a portfolio of work by Gerhard Richter; Color Field, inspired by the artwork of Mark Rothko; and Abstractions, inspired by five contemporary paintings. In addition, Clyne seeks innovation through new technology, developing the Augmented Orchestra with sound designer Jody Elff; the technology expands the sound-world of the orchestra through computer-controlled processes, and was premiered in Wild Geese at the 2023 Cabrillo Festival.
In 2023-2024, Clyne serves as Composer-in-Residence with the Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra as part of their Artistic Team; as Composer-in-Residence at the BBC Philharmonic, and as Artist-in-Residence with Symphony Orchestra of Castilla y León. Past residencies include the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, L’Orchestre national d’Île-de-France, Philharmonia Orchestra, Scottish Chamber Orchestra and the Trondheim Symphony Orchestra. Clyne’s music is represented on several labels and her works Prince of Clouds and Night Ferry were nominated for 2015 GRAMMY Awards. Her cello concerto DANCE, recorded by soloist Inbal Segev, the London Philharmonic Orchestra, and Marin Alsop, has garnered 10 million plays on Spotify.
Clyne is deeply committed to music education and to supporting and mentoring the next generation of composers. She has taught master classes and workshops throughout the US and internationally and was the founding mentor for the Orchestra of St Luke’s Degaetano Composition Institute, the Scottish Chamber Orchestra’s New Stories program and the Berkeley Symphony Orchestra's Emerging Composers Program.
Clyne’s music is published exclusively by Boosey & Hawkes.
Her orchestral work Restless Oceans has an interesting history. Clyne explains:
“I composed Restless Oceans for Marin Alsop and the Taki Concordia Orchestra for performance at the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting in Davos. The piece received its world premiere at the opening ceremony in 2019 where Marin Alsop was presented with the Forum’s prestigious Crystal Award in recognition of her championship of diversity in music. This work draws inspiration and its title from A Woman Speaks - a poem by Audre Lorde and was composed with this particular all-women orchestra in mind. In addition to playing their instruments, the musicians are also called to use their voices in song and strong vocalizations, and their feet to stomp and to bring them to stand united at the end. My intention was to write a defiant piece that embraces the power of women. Restless Oceans is dedicated with thanks to Marin Alsop.”
A Woman Speaks - by Audre Lorde
Moon marked and touched by sun
my magic is unwritten
but when the sea turns back
it will leave my shape behind.
I seek no favor
untouched by blood
unrelenting as the curse of love
permanent as my errors
or my pride
I do not mix
love with pity
nor hate with scorn
and if you would know me
look into the entrails of Uranus
where the restless oceans pound.
I do not dwell
within my birth nor my divinities
who am ageless and half-grown
and still seeking
my sisters
witches in Dahomey
wear me inside their coiled cloths
as our mother did
mourning.
I have been woman
for a long time
beware my smile
I am treacherous with old magic
and the noon's new fury
with all your wide futures
promised
I am
woman
and not white.
Reprinted by kind permission of Boosey & Hawkes
BEATRICE LUONGO
Horses (2024) - World Premiere
Last WWS performance: First performance at this concert
Approximate length: 2 minutes
Inspiration: My inspiration was that I like riding horses and having fun with them, so I wrote a piece about them. I thought a lot about the movement of horses at different speeds, and I tried to show that in the music.
Bio: Beatrice Luongo is in the fifth grade at Edison Elementary School. She enjoys riding horses, sketching, writing stories, and playing the violin.
TERESA WHEELER
The Serpent’s Delight (2024) - World Premiere
Last WWS performance: First performance at this concert
Approximate length: 5 minutes
Inspiration: I’ve composed a number of pieces that have a jungle theme and found I was missing one element: the darkness and slyness of the jungle. And so my inspiration for this piece came from what I think the quieter parts of the jungle sound like. Other artists that have inspired me in this piece include Thelonious Monk, Esperanza Spalding, Silk Sonic, Michael Mayo, Laufey, and Dave Brubeck.”
Bio: Teresa Wheeler believes in living every day to its fullest no matter where she is. This energy is reflected in her passion and drive for music, in particular jazz composition and jazz piano, which has compelled her to pursue advanced study at Berklee College of Music in Boston, MA. She has attended Berklee’s 5-week Aspire Program two summers now and is hoping to go there for college. Another fun fact: ‘The Serpent’s Delight’ is part of a series of jungle-themed pieces Teresa has composed; a big band piece in this series will be performed by Mill Creek Jazz Band on October 20th. Teresa is immensely grateful for all of the support she’s received from the Walla Walla Symphony through the Youth Symphony Orchestra and SPARK!, and wishes to extend a special thank you to Prof. Kristin Vining, whom she loves working with!
SAM WU
Born 1995 in Melbourne, Australia
Hydrosphere (2022)
Last WWS performance: First performance at this concert
Approximate length: 8 minutes
This work was premiered in 2022 in Hobart, Australia by the Tasmanian Symphony conducted by Benjamin Northey. It is scored for piccolo, two flutes, two oboes, two clarinets, bass clarinet, two bassoons, contrabassoon, four horns, two trumpets, three trombones, tuba, timpani, percussion, harp, and strings.
Sam Wu's music deals with the beauty in blurred boundaries. Many of his works center around extra-musical themes: architecture and urban planning, climate science, and the search for exoplanets that harbor life.
Selected for the American Composers Orchestra's EarShot readings and the Tasmanian Symphony’s Australian Composers’ School, winner of an ASCAP Morton Gould Young Composer Award and First Prize at the Washington International Competition, Sam Wu also received Harvard's Robert Levin Prize and Juilliard's Palmer Dixon Prize.
Sam’s collaborations span five continents, most notably with the orchestras of Philadelphia, New Jersey, Minnesota, Sarasota, Melbourne, Tasmania, and Shanghai, the New York City Ballet, The Kennedy Center, National Center for the Performing Arts in Beijing, Sydney International Piano Competition, the Lontano, Parker, Argus, ETHEL, and icarus Quartets, conductors Osmo Vänskä, Case Scaglione, Ming Luke, and Benjamin Northey, violinist Johan Dalene, and sheng virtuoso Wu Wei.
Sam has been featured on the National Geographic Channel, Business Insider, Harvard Crimson, Sydney Morning Herald, Asahi Shimbun, People's Daily, CCTV, among others.
From Melbourne, Australia, Sam holds an AB in Music and East Asian Studies from Harvard University, a MM in Composition from The Juilliard School, and a DMA in Composition from Rice University's Shepherd School of Music. This fall, he joins the faculty at Whitman College as their Visiting Assistant Professor in Theory and Composition. Sam’s teachers include Tan Dun, Anthony Brandt, Pierre Jalbert, Chaya Czernowin, and Richard Beaudoin.
The composer has strong beliefs about our interconnected world:
“The interconnectedness of our world is a major theme in my music. In an age where a night’s sleep is all it takes to travel halfway around the world, and where Bach and Mongolian throat singing can occupy adjacent YouTube tabs, I explore and seek inspiration in non-Western musical traditions, even as I write and perform works within the classical lineage. I am interested in bridging apparent differences between cultures and musicians, and in doing so, seeking the subcutaneous common ground that we share as human beings.
“The globalization of culture makes it impossible for artists to exist in a vacuum. In fact, we have an obligation to be socially responsible. We produce works as citizen-artists, where we address and invite reflection upon the realities that confront us today. My recent pieces feature dialogues between instruments, and in extension, musical traditions, both foreign and familiar to me. In addition to orchestras, choruses, and chamber ensembles, I work with didgeridoo, shakuhachi, sho, pipa, erhu, yangqin / Chinese dulcimer virtuosi, as well as Mongolian throat singers. In doing so, I first highlight the differences among these instruments, before considering how I may interact with their cultural contexts.
“Ultimately, I try to transcend the assumed identities of the instruments I write for, be it a cello, soprano singer, or morin khuur (Mongolian horse-head fiddle). By drawing on their rich pasts and distinct identities, I hope to synthesize a contemporary understanding of how we relate to one another in the ways we experience art. In geopolitics, borders are absolute; in music, the blurring, or even the abolishment, of boundaries can be the most beautiful.”
His work Hydrosphere reflects on water in our world.
“Hydrosphere is inspired by the water cycle: a macroscopic, planetary process that shapes oceans and continents. Water is the source of life as we know it; its eternal cycle accompanies generations across the aeons. Despite its ubiquity, water is precious; we must protect Gaia’s lifeblood.”
Biography and program notes graciously provided by the composer
Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov
Born March 18, 1844, near Novgorod, Russia
Died June 21, 1908, near St. Petersburg, Russia
Scheherazade, Op. 35 (1888)
Last WWS Performance: March 29, 2014
Approximate length: 42 minutes
The work was premiered on November 12, 1888, by the Russian Musical Society, in St. Petersburg, with the composer conducting. It is scored for piccolo, three flutes, two oboes, English horn, two clarinets, two bassoons, four horns, two trumpets, three trombones, tuba, timpani, percussion, harp, and strings.
European musical fashion was slow in its eastward exodus into Russian culture. After Napoleon’s failure to conquer the Russian lands in 1812, the arts in the Motherland focused on folk culture. It was not until Mikhail Glinka’s works combined Russian themes and Germanic musical forms in the mid 19th century that European musical fashion took hold in Russia.
Perhaps it was this delayed acceptance that explains why nearly all of Glinka’s most noted disciples came from non-musical professions. Called moguchaya kuchka (the “Mighty Handful”), this group of talented armchair composers was comprised of Alexander Borodin (a chemist), Cesar Cui (an engineer), Modest Mussorgsky (a government clerk), Mily Balakirev (the leader and only professional musician), and Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov (a naval officer). This Nationalist group emphasized Russian subjects in their music, often incorporating folk melodies or stylized melodies meant to conjure Russian imagery.
Upon Balakirev’s urging in 1861, the untrained Rimsky-Korsakov taught himself composition and orchestration and produced some of the most advanced orchestrations of his day – Capriccio Espagnol, Russian Easter Overture, and Scheherazade. The most successful of the “Mighty Handful,” Rimsky-Korsakov mastered every aspect of the musical arts so completely that he was awarded a position as Professor of Composition at the St. Petersburg Conservatory just ten years after he began composing. Strangely, he also began formal study for the first time, attending classes at the Conservatory while teaching a studio of young composers, including Piotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky. By the time of Rimsky-Korsakov’s death in 1908, he had mentored many important composers who shaped the musical landscape of the following century, among them Alexander Glazunov, Sergei Prokofiev, and Igor Stravinsky.
Scheherazade (1888) celebrates the exotic locale of Arabia. The tales of the 1001 Arabian Nights date to as early as the 10th Century and give us the stories of Sinbad, Ali Baba, and Aladdin. In order to link several of these together into one unified symphony, Rimsky-Korsakov prefaced the published score as follows:
“The Sultan Shakriar, convinced of the falsehood and inconstancy of all women, had sworn an oath to put to death each of his wives after the first night. However, the Sultana Scheherazade saved her life by arousing his interest in the tales which she told during the 1001 nights. Driven by curiosity the Sultan postponed her execution from day to day and at last abandoned his sanguinary design.”
“Scheherazade told miraculous stories to the Sultan. For her tales she borrowed verses from the poets and words from folksongs combining fairy tales with adventure.”
Insisting that listeners form their own unique narrative, Rimsky-Korsakov provided only fragmentary titles for the four exotic and evocative movements.
The Sea and Sinbad’s Ship
The Story of the Kalendar Prince
The Young Prince and the Young Princess
The Festival in Baghdad; The Ship Goes to Pieces on a Rock Surmounted by a Bronze Warrior.
Individual demands on each player are extreme. Excerpts from this work are regularly requested on orchestra auditions. The score is filled with strikingly original orchestration using creative and subtle combinations of instruments. It has been noted that Scheherazade sounds amazingly Eastern – no mean feat for an ensemble comprising only Western instruments.
© 2024 Orpheus Music Prose & Craig Doolin
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