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.

Eyes on the prizes

After the 104th Anniversary Gala this Saturday, summer will be upon us before too long. This summer, one lucky person (and a dozen or so of their closest friends) can look forward to views and surroundings like this:

Picture yourself front and center.

Chances are still available for the Luxury Raffle grand prize: a week's stay at a marvelous vacation home in Avalon, NJ. The dimensions are large enough for multiple families -- 10,000 square feet, nine bedrooms, 10 baths, decks on every floor.

One of several spacious kitchens.

The views kind of speak for themselves: see above and here, too. If 219 feet of bay frontage and the nearby beaches of Avalon aren't enough, there's a heated swimming pool, too.

Oddly-shaped footprint, or large-capacity swimming pool?

There's more details on the house, and on the three great prizes available for $20 a chance, available here.
This beautiful house, all of the experiences that come with it, and views like the one above could be yours: you can purchase tickets for the Luxury Raffle through Friday, April 19.

You can purchase them the night of the Gala like last year's winners, Mary and Bill Ludford did, but why wait? You can buy them online here -- but only until Friday, so act now!

Wrapping up and returning

Settlement piano students Cary Zhang and Serim An and faculty member Sandra Carlock recently spent ten days in England to study and perform at the Finchcocks Musical Museum in England. They kept up an impressive pace during their stay; this post wraps up a frenzied final week of activity.

4/5/2012 and 4/6/2012

Back to Thursday’s visit to Folkestone for our concert there and visit with Michael and Janice Foad.  After our concert and lunch, Mr. Foad took us to Canterbury Cathedral.  Parts of it go back 1000 years, and it is still standing and is so huge and so beautiful.  We wondered how people even knew how to construct such a building that long ago and without modern technology and equipment.  We especially liked the stained glass (some of them were from Chartres Cathedral in France), and we were lucky enough to hear the organist practicing on the huge cathedral organ.  It was a marvelous and majestic sound and filled the whole of the cathedral.  Amazing!!  Earlier in the day – just after our concert in the United Reform Church in Folkestone, Mr. Foad (who is an organist) actually showed us inside the church organ – a restored tracker action organ.  We saw the pipes and bellows, and heard the trumpet stop from within the organ!  So when hearing the huge cathedral organ we could relate a bit better to it.  The Canterbury Cathedral is historic because Thomas à Becket was martyred there and it is also famous for the Canterbury Tales by Chaucer.

Friday was the day before our presentation for the Clementi Award – so we practiced the pianos and the lecture literally ALL DAY LONG!  It was a 10 hour day!!!   But first, we promised in our last blog entry to say something about our “light bulb” day on this past Monday.  When working with the 1842 Pleyel  (a piano very similar to the one Chopin actually owned), Ms. Carlock and Steven Devine were discussing Chopin’s pedal markings – which are very difficult to implement exactly on the modern grand piano.  Ms. Carlock had been interested in trying to follow the pedal markings more precisely on the Pleyel…and they work wonderfully on that beautiful piano!  How exciting to discover that Chopin (who was very precise in his manuscripts) had written down pedal markings that were completely effective on the pianos he owned and used!

Serim takes a moment away from the bench to pose with the 1866 Erard

Saturday was the BIG DAY!  We did our presentation for David Ward, professor of fortepiano at the Royal College of Music in London.  It was almost 2 hours in length.  We alternated performances and commentary on the pianos and music and each of us played on four different pianos and covered repertoire from the 1700’s to the late 19^th century.  

It went SO well – even better than we would ever have dreamed it could!  Mr. Ward was extremely complimentary and also had some excellent suggestions and comments.  But his response more than justified all our hard work and preparation.  We were so pleased and excited and felt we had learned so much from working on the early instruments that will change our thinking completely about how we approach music of earlier eras on the modern grand piano.  It was really a sensational day!  In the afternoon all three of us (Ms. Carlock too) performed for the annual general meeting of Finchcocks. 

This wonderful day ended with a lovely dinner out with Mr. Christopher Clementi who is responsible for giving the Muzio Clementi Award.  At the end of the presentation, he gave us certificates – beautifully framed – to commemorate our Awards.  It was so nice to meet him and spend time with him and his wife Frances.  They are SO nice, and made us feel very special.

Cary playing the 1842 Pleyel

4/7 and 4/8

Our last two days at Finchcocks were focused around the Open Day performances at the Museum.  It gave us a chance to play several times and much of our music again…and it just seemed to come more easily each time.  We felt so extremely comfortable in performance – probably because we had played in public literally almost every day.  It is an amazing experience to feel at ease in that way and not be on edge.  We also felt (and Ms. Carlock told us so) that we played the pianos more convincingly and with a more complete sense of their possibilities each performance. 

 

We also saw the workshop of the Broadwood Piano Company – which is where Alastair Lawrence (curator of the Museum and Director of the Broadwood Company) builds and restores Broadwood pianos.  The Broadwood piano as a “brand” goes back to the 1700’s.  It was fascinating to see the machinery that is used, for instance, in bending and molding the rim of a grand piano. 

Our Open Day performances also included a really fun piece by the French composer Cecile Chaminade for EIGHT hands at one piano!!!  It was written for a silver wedding party and was specifically composed for three little girls and one little boy.  We and Ms. Carlock played the three little girls…and Per Løhne – the Norwegian piano technician who helped us every day by keeping all the pianos in beautiful condition by tuning and repairing – played the part of the little boy.  We had never played a piece for so many people at one piano and we had a blast!!  The audience loved it!

Four people, eight hands: Serim and Cary with Christopher Clementi (descendant of Muzio) and David Ward

4/10/2012

We are on our way home today!  Sad day – although we will obviously be very happy to see our families!  We have talked a lot about what we’ve learned from our experience with these marvelous instruments.  But we want to say, in closing, how much we benefitted from our experience not only with a ‘foreign’ culture, but by living for 10 days in a very close knit community of incredibly passionate musicians.  We felt such a love of music and it was completely contagious.  We also loved the British food (fish and chips, fish pie, steak and kidney pie, mushy peas, bread and butter pudding, sticky toffee pudding, AND CREAM TEAS!!!!).  We loved some of the terms and expressions as well…such as  “jolly good’, “Blymie”,  “chips” – meaning French Fries – and “crisps” – meaning potato chips;  and “gobsmacked” meaning “shocked” or something similar!

But most of all, we felt the love and support of all the wonderful people who worked with us for the duration of our trip.  Ten days is not that long, really, but we came to feel so close and so much like family at Finchcocks that it was really difficult to say ‘goodbye!’  We will treasure this experience and the feelings we have for the people and the pianos forever!  

Luxury raffle winners claim their prize

Beach season won't be upon us until Memorial Day at the earliest, but sun and sand down the shore have been on our minds a lot recently, since the grand prize for Settlement's luxury raffle is a week's stay at a fantastic vacation house in Avalon, NJ. We've rattled off the description to countless people in recent weeks -- 10,000 square feet (seriously), nine bedrooms, 10 baths, etc. -- but we've only had one picture on hand to show off.

The entrance to the grand prize Avalon vacation home - more awaits inside!

 Not anymore! Last year's lucky winners, Mary and Bill Ludford, took the recent Easter holiday as an opportunity to bring their families down to Avalon and claim their prize, and we scooted down to Avalon to capture them in the midst of their relaxing getaway.

Mary and Bill Ludford - they bought their winning ticket at the 2011 Anniversary Gala

Throughout the week, the Ludfords are hosting over a dozen members of their family, including parents, children, nieces and nephews, and they're having their co-workers from PECO/Exelon over at the end of this week. All of their guests will see the light streaming in from outside, soak in the heated swimming pool and oversized tubs, and views of the surrounding bay and lagoons.

Sunset over the bay -- visible from decks on all three floors

This beautiful house, all of the experiences that come with it, and views like the one above could be yours: you can purchase tickets for the luxury raffle through Thursday, April 19. You can purchase them the night of the Gala like the Ludfords did, but why wait? You can buy them online here, and keep an eye on this blog and Settlement's Facebook page for more photos and teasers this week and next.

A busy week across the pond

Settlement piano students Cary Zhang and Serim An and faculty member Sandra Carlock have journeyed to the Finchcocks Musical Museum in England. Their time overseas is coming to an end -- they'll head back to the US tomorrow -- but they've kept up an impressive pace during their stay. Here, we catch up on all their activities over the past week: everything from intensive rehearsals and performances to a trip to London.

4/5/12

On Monday, at our session with Stephen Devine, Director of Education at Finchcocks, we learned a great deal about how the mechanisms of the instruments relate to the way in which the music should be interpreted, and how the tone is produced. We have more to say on this subject, but it was truly a light bulb day!!

Cary, Serim and Sandra working with the Erard (1866)

On Tuesday, we had an all-day practice session (as in, eight hours!). The job at hand was to apply
what we had learned on Monday and to become ever more comfortable with the instruments we will
use in our presentations on Saturday. We were very pleased with the progress we made!

Wednesday was a quick trip to London. We took the round London bus tour and saw all of the famous landmarks such as: Big Ben, the Parliament Buildings, Westminster Abbey, The Tower of London and the Tower Bridge, and the London Eye. We had lunch in a traditional English pub across from the Tower of London. Serim had steak and kidney pie, and Ms. Carlock and Cary had British beef and ale pie- traditional British fare. The night before, we had been taken to dinner at a pub down the road from Finchcocks by Mr. and Mrs. Burnett where we all had fish and chips.

Today, we all three played a benefit coffee concert at the United Reform Church in Folkestone, England. We played on a modern grand which felt very strange at first, after five days on early pianos! The concert went really well, though. The audience was tremendously responsive- Ms. Carlock has performed in Folkestone numerous times, so she is known to audiences there. Our concert this morning was arranged by Michael Foad, Music Director and Organist at the church.

We will add more tomorrow, which will be another all- day practice session in preparation for our lecture recitals on Saturday morning. We are feeling better and better prepared and are VERY excited!!"

Pianos and pastures

Settlement piano students Cary Zhang and Serim An and faculty member Sandra Carlock have journeyed to the Finchcocks Musical Museum in England. Here, the students offer some reflections on performing as part of receiving a prestigious award and on the countryside surrounding the Museum in the County of Kent.

4/1/12

We are staying in a beautiful, old cottage with a view across the fields. On the second day, we drove up to the museum and saw acres of fields scattered with sheep and little lambs, as this is lambing time in England.

English sheep - none were harmed in the writing of this blog post

Today was the first Open Day of the season at the museum. Open Days are an opportunity for visitors to walk around the house and see all the instruments. They then are able to hear a selection of them played during two hour-long concerts during the afternoon.

As recipients of the Muzio Clementi Award, we were featured on the second of the concerts this afternoon. We, including Ms. Carlock, each performed. After a practice session, we felt excited but very nervous. Throughout the concert, we heard some wonderful performances from all of the professional artists, including our teacher. Our performances went very well -- even better than expected! We now have a much better understanding of how we should approach the production of tone and color on instruments that date back to the time of Mozart.

Detail of the 1795 Broadwood Square Piano - courtesy of www.finchcocks.co.uk

We have been wonderfully supported and look forward to tomorrow's all day session with Steven Devine, Director of Development and Education at Finchcocks.  Steven is also an internationally recognized harpsichordist and conductor.  After dinner with the Burnetts and other friends we went back to our cottage and collapsed!  'Til tomorrow!

Settlement students abroad

Piano students Cary Zhang and Serim An and faculty member Sandra Carlock have journeyed to the Finchcocks Musical Museum in England, home to a famed collection of historic and antique keyboard instruments. Throughout this week, we'll be sharing stories of their playing and overseas adventures.

Cary and Serim at Newark Liberty International Airport before departure

3/31/12

After landing from a long and crowded overnight flight, we made our way to passport control. Because so many flights landed at one time, it took us over an hour!!!

We were all relieved to be on our way to Finchcocks in our rental car after a tiring time at the airport. We arrived and were given a very warm welcome by the Burnetts, with a lovely lunch. We rushed through unpacking because we wanted to meet the pianos ASAP!

We went on a wonderful tour with Mr. Burnett and spent a marvelous hour playing the pianos. We tried out the 1826 Graf, the 1815 Fritz, the 1842 Pleyel, and the 1866 Erard.

They each have a unique and beautiful sound, which we loved. Yet, that and the feel were so different that playing on these pianos for the first time was a bit disorienting. We realized we had a lot of work to do before we could play the pianos very well.

We then had a delicious dinner and finished a long and memorable day, watching a concert with the phonofiddle and the musical saw. The phonofiddle is a mixture of a violin and the bell (i.e. "horn part") of a trumpet. The musical saw is basically a saw any carpenter would use. The bow of a cello or bass is drawn perpendicularly across the non-tooth edge of the saw to create sound. By bending the saw, different pitches are produced. It was the perfect end to a very exciting day!

Widening the Stage: A new city-wide initiative for Settlement

Faculty, board members, the press, the Mayor of Philadelphia and a special celebrity guest were all on hand today at the Mary Louise Curtis branch for the announcement of a major grant and the start of a new, city-wide initiative. 

The Virginia-based Jack Kent Cooke Foundation has awarded $250,000 in funding for a program to enroll children ages 8 to 18 from lower-income families into a comprehensive music preparatory training program. It will also include Settlement's first-ever touring ensemble.

After an introduction by Settlement executive director Helen S. Eaton and Settlement Central Board of Trustees chair Barrie Trimingham, Mayor Michael Nutter delivered the announcement. "Settlement is really an incredible component of what we call in Philadelphia 'the creative economy'," Nutter said, noting that the program will enroll 80 students at Settlement's four Philadelphia-based branches.

Rock-and-roll legend and Settlement alumnus Chubby Checker made a special appearance after the announcement. He did "the Twist" and a few other dance moves, andd even gave a few staff members a sneak preview of a new composition -- listen up for it this summer!

The announcement received a lot of great media coverage by WHYY's Newsworks, Philebrity, and The Philadelphia Inquirer's Peter Dobrin, who covered the announcement on his ArtsWatch blog. He said, "In Philadelphia, where the need is great and resources strained, the news is doubly good when an organization wins an outside grant. The theory is, the award of local money means another local group needing it loses out, whereas money coming from a national source is a net gain into the community."

More information is available in our press room, and there will be more news here as the program gears up.

Food for Thought: Getting excited for the 104th Anniversary Gala

Staffers at Settlement start gearing up for the Gala much earlier than you might think. There are wrap up meetings in May to discuss the event just after it's over, internal Gala planning meetings in September for the following year, and a Gala Committee kickoff meeting in December.

But if any one event lets us know that the Gala is just around the corner (68 days until April 21!), it's the Gala Menu Tasting. Until this point, much of the Gala planning is on paper. Invitations haven't been mailed; program books are another month and half away. But here, with this meeting, we can start to see the Gala take shape. Delicious, delicious shape.

Above: Wild Mushroom Beggar's Purse & Wonton Wrapped Shrimp with Ginger Soy Sauce

Gala Chair Kevin Cunningham, Gala Vice Chairs Susan & the Honorable Vincent Poppiti, and Menu Co-Chairs Greg & Susan Moore and Valerie & Roger Wood came together last week at Loews Philadelphia Hotel to select an array of great food and wine for April's big event.

(left to right) Menu Co-chairs Susan & Greg Moore and Valerie & Roger Wood

There are hors d'oeuvre, salads, entrees and desserts from which to choose. For example, the assembled group tried three salads, before ultimately choosing the first one.

Baby Field Greens with Edible Flowers, Hearts of Palm, Red and Yellow Currant Tomatoes and Champagne Vinaigrette

Bibb Lettuce, Roma Tomato, Fresh Mozzarella and Watercress White Balsamic Vinaigrette

Butter Lettuce, Red Oak and Mache with Feta Crumbles, Kalamata Olives, Roasted Tomato, Onion and Greek Dressing

And then come entrees and desserts.

 

Our group ultimately chose a Veal Chop with Black Truffle and Baby Spinach Marsala Wine Reduction as the entree.

And a French Apple Tart with Caramel Anglaise as the dessert.

And to all that, you can add wines provided by Moore Bros. Wine Company. It's enough to make you feel stuffed before the event even starts. Color us very excited!

For more info on Settlement's Gala, including how to buy tickets, support the program book or enter our luxury raffle, visit our website (www.smsmusic.org/gala)!