2011-2012 Season

American Voices

Roanoke Symphony Orchestra

Roanoke Symphony Chorus

Liberty University Concert Choir

Southern Virginia University Concert Chorale

Roanoke College Children's Choir

Robin Reed, Narrator

David Stewart Wiley, Conductor

Mon 5 Mar 2012, 8:00 PM
Roanoke Performing Arts Theatre

This event is partially supported by the Virginia Commission for the Arts and the National Endowment for the Arts.

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This program features over 200 musicians in the orchestra and choruses, as we celebrate our vital and living American history through beloved music. We will perform Bernstein's inspiring setting of psalms of peace, Copland's tribute to President Lincoln, and a wonderful new work by James Stanard that movingly commemorates the 150th anniversary of�the civil war.

Arr. Gould American Salute About this Music

Bernstein Chichester Psalms About this Music

LEONARD BERNSTEIN
Chichester Psalms

Chichester Psalms was commissioned for the 1965 Southern Cathedrals' Festival at Chichester Cathedral in West Sussex, England. However, the world premiere took place in the Philharmonic Hall, New York on July 15, 1965 with Bernstein conducting, followed by the performance in the Chichester Festival on July 31.

The work was Bernstein's first composition after his Third Symphony (Kaddish). While both works have a chorus singing texts in Hebrew, the Kaddish Symphony has been described as a work often at the edge of despair, while Chichester Psalms is affirmative and at times serene.

The Psalms, and the first movement in particular, are noted among performers for their musical difficulty, with the opening section of the first movement often considered one of the hardest passages for choral tenors ever written, owing to the range of the piece, its rhythmic complexity and the consistent presence of the strange and difficult-to-maintain parallel 7ths between the tenor and bass parts. The seventh interval figures prominently due to its numerological importance in the Judeo-Christian tradition; also the first movement is written in the 7/4 meter.

Copland A Lincoln Portrait About this Music

AARON COPLAND
A Lincoln Portrait

Copland's Lincoln Portrait is narrated with the reading of excerpts of Abraham Lincoln's great documents, including the Gettysburg Address. It was was written by Copland as part of the World War II patriotic war effort in 1942. Other material in the narration includes speeches and letters of Lincoln and quoted original folk songs of the period, including "Camptown Races" and "Springfield Mountain". The first performance was by the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra on 14 May 1942, with William Adams as the narrator.

Bernstein Make Your Garden Grow
from Candide About this Music

LEONARD BERNSTEIN
Make Your Garden Grow from Candide

Candide is the perfectly ridiculous tale of young lovers Candide and Cunegonde, who are torn apart repeatedly by war, political machinations, sexual slavery and piracy -- and emerge near the end of the story penniless but reunited. They've by choice abandoned all riches, all luxury, to embrace a life of hard work, of living off the land. Just when you think there might finally be some redeeming social statement imposed on the story, as suggested by their final number, "Make Our Garden Grow," the musical ends with a pratfall. Has love finally conquered all? Is a strong work ethic the remedy for strife?

Barber Adagio for Strings About this Music

SAMUEL BARBER
Adagio for Strings

Adagio for Strings was arranged for string orchestra from the second movement of Barber's String Quartet, Op. 11. Barber finished the arrangement in 1936, the same year as he wrote the quartet. It was performed for the first time in 1938, in a radio broadcast from a New York studio attended by an invited audience, conducted by Arturo Toscanini. Its reception was generally positive, with Alexander J. Morin writing that Adagio for Strings is "full of pathos and cathartic passion" and that it "rarely leaves a dry eye."

Margolis Death of A Civil War Soldier About this Music

JEROME MARGOLIS
Death of A Civil War Soldier

The Death of a Civil War Soldier is the sixth movement of the orchestral suite, "Millcreek" by Jerome Margolis. The suite depicts people and events during the passing of time over generations at a particular location. The Roanoke Symphony Orchestra premiered the opening movement "Landscape" from the Millcreek suite in May, 2010.

Here, a young Civil War solider lays dying against a tree while a battle continues nearby. As he drifts between various states of consciousness he remembers the cabin where he played as a child, his parents, the church he attended and the girl he left when he went off to war. The sounds of battle -- canons blazing, the shouts of orders, the cries of the wounded, horse-drawn caissons all fill his ears. A battlefield comrade sits by his side trying his best to offer comfort, but soon the young soldier drifts off as death claims him. The companion rises and hurries back to the battlefield.

Thompson Virginia's My Home

THOMPSON
Adagio for Strings

Adagio for Strings was arranged for string orchestra from the second movement of Barber's String Quartet, Op. 11. Barber finished the arrangement in 1936, the same year as he wrote the quartet. It was performed for the first time in 1938, in a radio broadcast from a New York studio attended by an invited audience, conducted by Arturo Toscanini. Its reception was generally positive, with Alexander J. Morin writing that Adagio for Strings is "full of pathos and cathartic passion" and that it "rarely leaves a dry eye."

Various Armed Forces Salute

THOMPSON
Adagio for Strings

Adagio for Strings was arranged for string orchestra from the second movement of Barber's String Quartet, Op. 11. Barber finished the arrangement in 1936, the same year as he wrote the quartet. It was performed for the first time in 1938, in a radio broadcast from a New York studio attended by an invited audience, conducted by Arturo Toscanini. Its reception was generally positive, with Alexander J. Morin writing that Adagio for Strings is "full of pathos and cathartic passion" and that it "rarely leaves a dry eye."

David Stewart Wiley Conductor About this Artist

David Stewart Wiley serves concurrently as Music Director & Conductor of our Roanoke Symphony Orchestra and New York's Long Island Philharmonic. Prior to these positions, he served as Assistant Conductor of the Minnesota Orchestra and, before that, the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra. In demand as a guest conductor, pianist, and composer, Maestro Wiley has performed all over the world including numerous countries in Europe, Asia, and Africa. He has led top American orchestras including the symphonies of Atlanta, Boston, Cincinnati, Honolulu, Indianapolis, Minnesota, Oregon, Saint Louis, San Francisco, and Utah. David Stewart Wiley is the recipient of the Aspen Conducting Prize (1993), a Conducting Fellowship at Tanglewood, the Daniels Prize in Music & Literature from Tufts University, and Virginia's Perry F. Kendig Award for Service to the Arts. Maestro Wiley holds four degrees: Doctor and Master of Music degrees in Conducting from Indiana University, a degree in piano performance with honors from the New England Conservatory, and a degree in Religion, summa cum laude, from Tufts University.

As a solo pianist, David Stewart Wiley has performed with numerous major orchestras throughout the United States and has appeared as a jazz pianist in Boston's Symphony Hall and in recital appearances throughout the U.S. as well as in China, Russia, Romania, Germany, Italy, and Bulgaria. Wiley has collaborated with a diverse list of top artists in the Classical and Pops world, including Billy Joel, Jessye Norman, Leonard Bernstein, Sir James Galway, Midori, Lynn Harrell, John Williams, David Kim, Elmar Oliveira, Jon Nakamatsu, Andre Watts, Norman Krieger, Zuill Bailey, Bernadette Peters, Bruce Hornsby, Jennifer Holliday, Marvin Hamlisch, Mercedes Ellington, Lou Rawls, Doc Severinsen, Michael McDonald, Art Garfunkel, the Pointer Sisters, Ben Vereen, Kool & the Gang, and the Sounds of Blackness. The RSO & Wiley announced that David will extend his contract with the RSO through 2013.

Learn More about David Stewart Wiley

KeyNotes - Pre-Concert w/ David Stewart Wiley 2:00 PM

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	710 Williamson Rd. NE 24016 Get directions to this event at Roanoke Performing Arts Theatre.
	Reserve your table at Roanoke restaurants. Dining Options.