Musician’s Musing – March 2020

March 9, 2020 by

This month’s musing is written by BSO assistant principal violist, librarian, and personnel coordinator Jon Poupore. We are so happy to have Jon on the BSO’s administrative and musical teams and are thrilled to share his words with you here!

It’s been nearly three years since my husband James and I moved from Maine to Minnesota, and what a wonderful move it’s been. I grew up in Duluth and James spent his teens and early 20’s in the Upper Midwest. I was especially fortunate to be coming back when I did as I was able to spend a quality two years with my mother as she dealt with ovarian cancer. She died a year ago this past January.

James Carlisle (left) & Jon Poupore (right)

I’ve always had a non-traditional relation to music: I’ve sung in choirs my whole life, took up Classical guitar and piano as a young teen, and at age 17 started the viola with a former student of William Primrose. Deciding to attend St. John’s University for pre-medical studies in 1981, I quickly switched over to Viola Performance and haven’t looked back since. It was there that I was roommate for two years with a pianist named Carl, and after losing track of each other for some 35 years, reunited and have since put on a program of Viola and Violin music that we’ve shared over 15 times.

To say I love chamber music does not quite cut it; indeed I get the highest satisfaction when playing quartets. It’s sometimes discouraging that it can be so difficult to pull people together to play, but I currently have several groups and the quality is improving all the time. I’ve started a monthly series called Classical Open Mic at Southdale Center which meets every first Wednesday of the month; join us, bring a piece to share, or sit in the audience. 

I’ve also made a lifelong commitment to understanding the technique of the violin legend Jascha Heifetz, and can say with a high degree of certainty that I have it “figured out.”  I love sharing that knowledge too.  My other music passion is mechanical instruments, particularly something called a Reproducer Piano, which is just a very sophisticated player piano.  I currently have three!

When we moved from Baltimore to Maine in 2007, I slid right into a job as the Librarian for the Portland Symphony Orchestra, an environment with wonderful co-workers, big responsibilities, and enjoyable duties.  I am happy to be bringing some of those skills to my job with the BSO. I also worked Personnel both in Portland and earlier with the Duluth-Superior Symphony in the 1990’s.

Accompanying my move to Minnesota is a commitment to changing my status as musician from professional to amateur, and it’s been a great decision. I also play with the Minnesota Philharmonic Orchestra, one of the world’s few GLBTQA orchestras, and a highly gratifying experience. Eventually I hope to find a local chorus to join.

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New Works and Old Friends :: Concert Preview No. 3

October 2, 2019 by

Before each concert, we share “Manny’s Musings,” thoughts from our Music Director and Conductor, Manny Laureano. This is the third entry of the “Musings” for the “New Works and Old Friends” concert that will be performed on Sunday, October 6, 2019.

When you think of composers who had a large output of music of all types, one has to go to the usual suspects like Beethoven, Mozart, and Bach. If one was to further assume that it was one of those aforementioned gentlemen who held some sort of record for the most music written, you would be close but this is serious musicological business, not horse shoes. Nay, that record has to go to Georg Philipp Telemann (1681-1767) with about 900 pieces of music to his credit! This is not bad, considering that the young Georg was almost prevented from fulfilling his desire to be a great musician by his mother who believed that no good could come of this music obsession he had. My favorite quote about that was the admonition from some of the congregants from the Lutheran church he attended that he would turn out “a clown, a tightrope walker or a marmot trainer.” Never have seen a trained marmot, I don’t know that I would have minded that he learn the craft. At any rate, rodents were not in Telemann’s future and he set about studying a wide variety if musical instruments on his own in secret. He wrote and wrote as he matured and traveled to work in many important musical capacities for the great and near great. This came with a cost, however of a couple of marriages that didn’t end well. He did live a long life, dying at the age of 88.

A black and white etching of composer Georg Philipp Telemann wearing a white powdered wig and robes over his writing outfit
Georg Philipp Telemann

Telemann left us with a cornerstone of the viola repertoire, his Concerto for Viola in G Major which was written over a five year period between 1716 and 1721. I’m not sure what the hold up was, but it was the first concerto ever written for the instrument and I suppose he wanted to make sure he got it right. Apparently he did, since the four-movement, slow-fast-slow-fast structure was very appealing. The concerto exploits the wonderful alto voice of the instrument under a variety of articulations and sentiments. If you listen carefully, it will seem that the viola has a uniquely human character and it is perhaps that quality that makes it such a compelling voice to hear in the relationship between instrument and chamber orchestra.

African American violist George Taylor, wearing a robin's egg blue button down shirt, navy suit coat and holding his viola, stands against a colorful wallpapered wall.
George Taylor, viola soloist for the Bloomington Symphony Orchestra concert “New Works and Old Friends” on Sunday, October 6.

Join Music Director & Conductor Manny Laureano, for the concert, “New Works and Old Friends” featuring Eastman School of Music Viola Professor George Taylor as soloist. The concert takes place on Sunday, October 6, 2019, at 3 p.m., at the Gideon S. Ives Auditorium at the Masonic Heritage Center (11411 Masonic Home Drive, Bloomington)

To learn more about the concert, click here. You can order tickets online through the Masonic Heritage Center Box Office, or by calling 952-948-6506.

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New Works and Old Friends :: Concert Preview No. 2

September 30, 2019 by

Before each concert, we share “Manny’s Musings,” thoughts from our Music Director and Conductor, Manny Laureano. This is the second entry of the “Musings” for the “New Works and Old Friends” concert that will be performed on Sunday, October 6, 2019.

It is always an interesting debate to discuss what makes composers free in terms of how they express themselves. Are they free when they latch on to a current convention, perhaps writing in a style that is challenging for challenge’s sake? Are they freest when they write for themselves or the listener? This is the debate you may have when you listen to the music of Adolphus Hailstork (born 1941 in Rochester, NY). Hailstork is a true eclectic, as he doesn’t seem to feel the need to wed himself to any one musical language. He is at home in any structure he chooses to write.

African American composer Adolphus Hailstork, wearing a black tuxedo, against an ivory colored background
Adolphus Hailstork, composer

His works cover the gamut of styles and types of ensembles available for musical expression. He has written for band, orchestra, chorus, vocal soloists, and an array of chamber ensembles. This is reasonable, given his equally diverse mentors with whom he studied beginning in the early 1960’s including luminaries such as Nadia Boulanger, who was a prime influence for Igor Stravinsky and Aaron Copland, for example. He also worked with American composers David Diamond and Vittorio Giannini. What you think Hailstork “sounds like” really depends on which of his works you happen to be listening to.

Today, you will listen to his foray into the tonal qualities of the viola with chamber orchestra in Two Romances for Viola and Chamber Ensemble. His conversational and flowing style is a bit like the musical version of a color wheel which holds a melody that wafts from one instrument or sections of the orchestra to the solo viola. The BSO is proud to join the ranks of the Philadelphia Orchestra, New York Philharmonic, Baltimore Symphony, and Detroit Symphonies, to name a few, in this celebration of the music of one of our own American composers.

Join Music Director & Conductor Manny Laureano, for the concert, “New Works and Old Friends” featuring Eastman School of Music Viola Professor George Taylor as soloist. The concert takes place on Sunday, October 6, 2019, at 3 p.m., at the Gideon S. Ives Auditorium at the Masonic Heritage Center (11411 Masonic Home Drive, Bloomington)

To learn more about the concert, click here. You can order tickets online through the Masonic Heritage Center Box Office, or by calling 952-948-6506.

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Musician’s Musings – December 2015

December 4, 2015 by

Peter Chang, BSO viola and violin

Peter Chang, BSO viola and violin

Today we welcome Peter Chang, acting principal viola and violinist with the Bloomington Symphony Orchestra, to this month’s Musician’s Musings. We are enjoying the chance to feature thoughts from our musicians and hope you enjoy the same. 

Five Enchantingly Beautiful Orchestral Melodies That You May Not Have Heard Of

You’re probably no stranger to major composers like Mahler, Debussy and Brahms. There are favorites in the orchestral repertoire that frequently get the spotlight, but the world of classical music is so vast that it’s a shame not to explore the fringes.

Here is my list of five lesser known gems to add to your listening list:

Arthur Foote; 4 Character Pieces (Op. 48) – Andante Comodo

American composer, Arthur Foote’s 4 Character Pieces was based off a Persian selection of poems, the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam. To reflect the Middle Eastern nature of the work, Foote makes use of a Phrygian mode to great effect.

You can listen to this piece here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2GgLzAYoIrA

Carl Nielsen; Symphony No. 2 (Op. 16) Mvt. 3

Symphony No. 2 titled the Four Temperaments is Carl Nielsen’s musical characterizations of four strangely specific moods such as “Choleric” and “Phlegmatic” (both of which I had to Google). Not the moods I would have picked, but I’ve written no symphonies. Movement three is “Melancholic”.

You can listen to this piece here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zyOPmJhFego&feature=youtu.be&t=14m41s

Kalinnikov; Symphony No 1 Mvt. 2

This Symphony was written by Vasily Kalinnikov when he was 28. The second movement is surprisingly sublime when compared to the rest of the work, which tends to sounds like the work of a young composer.

You can listen to this piece here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TVakXOkE2G4&feature=youtu.be&t=14m27s

Aram Khachaturian; Spartacus Suite No. 2 – Adagio of Spartacus and Phrygia

From the Ballet of the same name. Spartacus and wife escape from captivity and enjoy a well earned happy moment alone to this tune.

You can listen to this piece here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=of5ebCY5__Q

Shostakovich; Piano Concerto No. 2 Mov. 2

This famous piano concerto doesn’t fit the ‘obscure’ descriptor quite as well as the rest of this list. Plus one could argue a piano concerto is not a purely orchestral composition. It is however, most definitely enchantingly beautiful.

You can listen to this piece here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JlMHjo7Jwhk

Have you heard of any of these before?

What other pieces can you add to the list?

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