World premieres by Settlement's young composers

Performers of all kinds often serve as opening acts for bigger, better-known names as they make their way to the top. At 6:30 pm on Saturday, works by student composers at Settlement will be featured as the opening act for a concert of contemporary music by the award-winning Philadelphia ensembles The Crossing and Network for New Music.

The students' pieces will be presented alongside a new work by their teacher, Roberto Pace, the Robert Capanna Fundamentals of Music Distinguished Faculty Chair. All are world premieres being performed for the very first time, and the project is funded by the American Composers Forum.

These new pieces are the product of a year-long concentration on the intersection of words and music, plus a collaboration with Philadelphia-based poet Lamont Steptoe, a writer, in Pace's words, "in the tradition of Whitman and Ginsberg." For students in Pace's Advanced Music Theory and Composition classes, it was the first time they had set poetry to music or worked with professional musicians.

Pace and his students started out with a Bach chorale, then moved on to more advanced examples by Brahms, Debussy and other greats. "We would talk about the words: about how the composer dramatically draws out the words, when the words have to be allowed to bloom, and when do you push the text forward," Pace says.

Roberto Pace leads members of the ensemble during rehearsal

After months of closely studying poems and musical settings heavy with words, the students began their composition process in January and worked on their pieces throughout the spring. After evaluations by Pace and workshops with musicians, works by five students were selected for the concert-opening honor:

• "Chaos, spun gold of the wind" by Immanuel Mykyta-Chomsky 
• "Wails and woundings" by Jeremy Gonzalo 
• "Juju clowns and holy men" by Shuvanon Shaheed
• "Inside the noise" by Alison Hsieh
• "Straight up in the air" by Maurice Jackson

Pace says that when Steptoe heard the pieces in a workshop setting several months ago, he was blown away, saying, "I'm so humbled that you have thought about my words and made them your own." In turn, the students enjoyed the experience of working with Steptoe - "the person whose brain and body the poem came from," in Pace's words - and gaining his perspective on the words they chose to set.

Pianist and SMS faculty member Linda Reichert and baritone Jackson Williams

All of the student works, as well as Pace's own "Somewhere without a map," will be performed by an ensemble of piano, clarinet (played by SMS faculty members Linda Reichert and Arne Running, respectively) and double bass accompanying soprano and baritone soloists.

Come out to support these students and their first forays into composition! The recital is at 6:30 pm on Saturday, June 2, 2012 at the Presbyterian Church of Chestnut Hill. 8855 Germantown Avenue, Philadelphia. Tickets for the 8:00 pm concert to follow are $18/$27 in advance and $20/$30 at the door.

A Sunday of Strings

As the end of the school year draws near, performances are popping up all over: senior recitals for scholarship students soon to graduate, certification concerts for selected students taking the next step in Settlement's curriculum, and weekday performance hours for students of all ages to show off the product of their lessons and practice sessions.

A low-strings sectional rehearsal

Year-end ensemble performances demonstrate something extra: a year of building chemistry and working toward achieving unity. Those group achievements will be on display this Sunday at the Mary Louise Curtis Branch. At 3 pm, the Spring Orchestra Festival features the Junior Orchestras from the Germantown and Mary Louise Curtis Branches and the Intermediate Orchestra, and at 7 pm, the Trowbridge Chamber Orchestra performs.


Playing in a large group is a big step for young musicians, says Monique Johnson, director of the MLC Junior Orchestra. "It's the very first time they've heard other instruments," she says, and her goal is to get her players to work together, to listen to themselves and one another, to form an ensemble out of 19 individuals. That means no "one-bar solos," as Johnson calls them: moments where an incorrect rhythm causes a student to play during a rest.

There are true solos on the concert, too: one from each section featured during Rossini's Overture to William Tell, and two featured violinists during Handel's "Entrance of the Queen of Sheba" from the oratorio "Solomon." Everyone in the orchestra was able to attempt the solos and decide if they want to try out. "I've had everybody play, and I've had the whole section play it together," Johnson says. "I always let them know what I'm listening for."

Jeri Lynne Johnson leading the Trowbridge Chamber Orchestra during rehearsal

Later on Sunday, the Trowbridge Chamber Orchestra, the most advanced group in Settlement's orchestra program, performs. This group recently had the honor of performing at Settlement's 104th Anniversary Gala, and they'll revisit the piece they performed that night: Ernest Bloch's Concerto Grosso with Piano Obbligato.

It's a piece that sounds more difficult than it really is, according to Trowbridge conductor Jeri Lynne Johnson. In terms of rhythm, counterpoint, and balance between sections and between piano and ensemble, it's still an advanced piece of music, one originally written for a collegiate orchestra and one that helps reinforce good ensemble habits. "It has some very intricate ensemble playing," Johnson says. "It requires them to really listen to each other."


Come see how well these students work together and how they respond to the conductors and soloists; it's the kind of teamwork that will serve them well in the future, whether playing or working.

The Spring Orchestra Festival at 3 pm and the Trowbridge Chamber Orchestra at 7 pm.

Both at PNC Bank*Presser Recital Hall at the Mary Louise Curtis Branch,

416 Queen Street, Philadelphia. 

Receptions to follow both performances.