at MUSIC at SAINT MATTHEW’S 2015-2016 Concert Season Thomas Neenan, Music Director
at
MUSICat SAINT MATTHEW’S
2015-2016 Concert Season
Thomas Neenan, Music Director
Welcome to Our 2015-2016 Season!Chamber Orchestra at St. Matthew’s Concertmaster, Yi-Huan Zhao, and Board President, Fred Doering
Our 31st year! Eight exciting concerts featuring our wonderful Chamber Orchestra and out-standing guest artists. I hope you will subscribe
to this great season. Subscribing is more than season tickets and a host of benefits. You are supporting the orchestra, the commission of new works, and our wonderful outreach programs.
Support our commitment of making classical music available to everyone and offering opportunities to younger musicians and composers. Help bring classical music to area schools, giving student musicians opportunities to perform with our professional orchestra, and performing free concerts in the community.
The St. Matthew’s Music Guild is a non-profit corporation and all donations over the basic levels are fully tax deductible under current laws. Experience the joy of hearing great live classical music and extending that opportunity to a new generation.
Fred Doering, President St. Matthew’s Music Guild
Subscribe now and receive:n Season tickets at the best
price
n World-class music in an intimate, casual atmosphere
n An easy drive and free parking
n Free refreshments in a stunning setting
n An elegant opening night supper at the Silver Patron Level and above
n Great new premium benefits
2015-2016 World-Class Music Close to Home
Photos by Chuck Gardner Photography
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2015 – 2016 SEASON OPENER
October 16 at 8pm – Jim Lathers Memorial Fund Concert
The Chamber Orchestra at St. Matthew’s With Violinist Glenn Dicterow
n Prokofiev: Violin Concerto No. 2n Mozart: Symphony No. 29 in A majorn Stravinsky: Pulcinella Suite
Our season opener is the first con-cert underwritten by the Lathers Memorial Fund, and we are thrilled
to present violinist Glenn Dicterow. In his 30 year tenure as Concertmaster of the New York Philharmonic, Mr. Dicterow was featured on numerous New York Phil-harmonic tours and “Live from Lincoln Center” broadcasts. He will perform the ex-citing Second Violin Concerto by Prokofiev.
Mozart was just 18 when he wrote the A major symphony, but had already found his unique voice. Musicologist Stanley Sadie calls it, “a landmark ... personal in tone, individual in its combination of an intimate, chamber music style with a still fiery and impulsive manner.” Featured throughout the movie “Amadeus,” the symphony displays the unique blend of joyfulness and quiet melancholy that is so indicative of Mozart’s music.
The Pulcinella Suite arises from the 1919 inspiration of Russian ballet impresario Sergei Diaghilev, to create a ballet based on the age-less, improvised Italian street entertainment known as the commedia dell’arte. For the music, Diaghilev chose Russian composer Igor Stravinsky with whom he had collaborated on some of his most famous modernist works — The Firebird, Petrushka and The Rite of Spring. But for this project Stravinsky had to reinvent himself as a Classicist, which he did brilliantly, with charming tunes and jaunty dance rhythms.
Glenn Dicterow
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Jim Lathers Memorial FundJim Lathers was a member of the Chamber Orchestra and a wonderful friend to many of our musicians. A first-rate clarinetist and one of the most prolific “doublers” in town, Jim played all of the saxes, plus flute, oboe, English horn and a few musical oddities like the basset horn and Heckelphone.
Jim died of cancer at the age of 65 in 2013, and made bequests to 20 arts and educational organizations including KUSC-FM, the Pacific Symphony, the University of Wisconsin and St. Matthew’s Music Guild. The Guild’s Board of Directors has established a Jim Lathers Memorial Fund and written an Investment Policy and guidelines for distributing proceeds from its investment portfolio.
The Lathers Memorial Fund enhances the Music Guild Endowment Fund that was established several years ago by an anonymous donor.
For information on the Music Guild Endowment Fund and Board policies regarding bequests, please contact President Fred Doering, [email protected].
Music at Saint Matthew’s n World Class Music Close to Home
November 6 at 8pmCombined Chamber Singers and Concert Choir
of the USC Thornton School of MusicJo-Michael Scheibe and Cristian Grases, conductors
n Tedesco: Romanesca Guitano
n Van: Night Sings to Morning (West Coast Premiere)
n Van: Three Poems of William Blake
n Beck: Songs of Exultation for Double Choir
USC’s Chamber Singers and Concert Choir return following their electrifying performance in March 2013.
The choirs will present a wide range of choral works, from magnificent pieces in the tradition of the multiple-choir masterpieces that Giovanni Gabrielli composed in the 16th century for the soaring spaces of the Basilica of St. Mark’s in Venice to intimate works for chamber choir and guitar by Tedesco and Jeffrey Van.
The Concert Choir from UCS’s Thornton School of Music will combine
with the school’s Chamber Singers (above).
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While Antonio Vivaldi was maestro di cap-pella at one of Venice’s large orphanages for girls, he wrote hun-dreds of violin concer-tos and other orches-tral works. However his Gloria, written in 1715 for chamber orchestra and chorus, remains one of his best known and beloved works.
Dietrich Buxtehude, the most important German composer in the generation before Bach, wrote vivacious and charming choral music, including his festive cantata “Artists, Strike the Timpani and the Harp.”
December 11 at 8pmThe Chamber Orchestra at St. Matthew’s with the
Choir and Soloists of St. Matthew’s Church
n Vivaldi: Glorian Handel: Organ Concerto in B-flat
and “Hallelujah” Chorus sing-alongn Buxtehude: Schlagt, Künstler! Die
Pauken und Saiten
January 22 at 8pm Chatham Baroque – A Mediterranean Odyssey
Chatham Baroque returns to St. Matthew’s with an exciting mix of French, Italian, and Spanish music.
Recognized as one of the leading propo-nents of early music, their wonderful in-terpretations have always been a favorite.
The program includes French dances by Jean Baptiste Lully, composer to King Louis XIV, Vivaldi’s famous “La Follia,” and Chatham Baroque’s own arrangements of popular dances from Spain and Latin America.
Chatham Baroque’s core ensemble will be joined by Baroque violinist Adriane Post and percussionist Danny Mallon.
This concert is made possible by a generous grant from the Edwin W. Pauley Foundation.
Our Annual Holiday Concert always sells out. This year, in addition to the “Hallelujah” Chorus sing-
along, we offer one of Handel’s popu-lar organ concertos. Handel played the concertos as intermission entertainment during performances of his oratorios. The full resources of the chamber orchestra will be matched by the church’s impres-sive Pardee Memorial Organ.
Music at Saint Matthew’s n World Class Music Close to Home
Joachín Turina composed his gorgeous Toreador’s Prayer in 1924 and it has remained a staple of concert programs in Spain ever since. Far from a stodgy or doleful meditation, Turina borrows the impressionistic colors of French composers Debussy and Ravel and marries them to the har-monies and dance rhythms of Iberia. ¡Olé!
Before he composed the Midsummer Night’s Dream Overture – which established him as the greatest musical prodigy of all time – Mendelssohn composed an equally impressive masterpiece, the Octet in E-flat. The Octet is uni-versally acknowledged as one of the greatest pieces of chamber music in the repertoire. Never mind that Mendelssohn was only 16 when he wrote it.
February 26 at 8pmThe Chamber Orchestra at St. Matthew’s
with Oboist Phil Feather
n Albinoni: Oboe Concerto n Turina: La Oración del Toreron Mendelssohn: Octet
Tomaso Albinoni, an Italian contem-porary of J.S. Bach, probably did not compose the
piece for which he is best known, the Adagio in G minor. No matter; we will use this famed “Albinoni Adagio” as the second move-ment for his accred-ited Oboe Concerto – a delightful work full of Baroque rhythmic élan and charm-ing tunes.
Phil Feather
Phil FeatherChamber Orchestra Principal Oboe Phil Feather is one of the most highly respected freelance classical and jazz woodwind players in Los Angeles. His Motion Picture, Sound Recording and TV credits number in the many hundreds. Phil has performed with numerous local, national and international orchestras and jazz bands and is on the faculty of Cal-State Los Angeles.
Tom NeenanMusic Director Tom Neenan’s insightful and frequently humorous
comments are an audience favorite at Music Guild concerts. Tom is a frequent speaker for the Los Angeles Philharmonic’s Upbeat Live!
series and Professor of Music at Caltech.
Bill and Barbara Blatt
}We had never been to St. Matthew’s, but after being invited to
a concert by a friend, we quickly became subscribers to this
wonderful series. The music is marvelous and we feel very connected - we even have a group
that meets for dinner before each concert.~ Photo courtesy of Mathew Imaging
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April 8 at 8pmBaroque and Beyond – Extravagant Music
from Venice, Leipzig and London
Eight of Los Angeles’s finest choral singers come together with instru-mental virtuosi for a program of mu-
sic by Gabrieli, Monteverdi, and Janequin, plus 20th century masters Benjamin Britten, John Tavener, and Gerald Finzi
Imagine yourself in Venice, c. 1620. The Doge’s Palace looms beyond the Basilica of St. Mark’s and the famed bell tower known as the cam-panile. The music of Gabrieli and Monteverdi wafts onto the piazza from inside the basilica and mixes with the calls of the street vendors and the thousands of pigeons that inhabit the place. Suddenly, you are transported to London’s
Trafalgar Square, in the year 2005. More pi-geons, more street cries. This time they mix with the sacred harmonies of Britten and Tavener lofting from the nearby St. Martin in the Fields.
Trafalgar Square
Kevin KumarChamber Orchestra Assistant Con cert - master Kevin Kumar. Kevin is Co-founder/Director of Salastina Music Society, a member of the Catgut Trio, and Artistic Director of the Canadaigua Lake Music Festival.
Tina Chang QuChamber Orchestra Associate Con cert-master Tina Chang Qu. Tina frequently appears with the Los Angeles Phil-harmonic and Los Angeles Opera Orchestra, and is a frequent soloist in international music festivals.
Aaron SmithChamber Orchestra Timpanist and Principal Percussionist Aaron Smith has performed with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, Pacific Symphony, and New West Symphony. He is a nationally respected clinician, adjudicator and member of the faculty at Cal-State Northridge and Loyola Marymount University.
Music at Saint Matthew’s n World Class Music Close to Home
May 6 at 8pmMusic for the Great Outdoors from the
Enchanted Forest to Chautauquan Geminiani: Enchanted Forest n Brahms: Serenade No. 1 n O’Reilly: Chautauqua Suite (world
premiere performance)n Brown: Commissioned Work (world
premiere performance, made possible by the St. Matthew’s Music Guild and the Los Angeles County Arts Commission)
Matthew BrownMatthew Brown has been commissioned by the Music Guild to compose a work exploring the intersection of Western and African musical influences. Matthew’s new work will be given its world premiere by the Chamber Orchestra in May 2016.
Catherine Lanter and John Carrick}The concerts are at a beautiful setting in Pacific Palisades, and we don’t have to drive downtown. We get a great variety of superb music, fantastic acoustics, and we’re fifteen minutes from home.~
Francesco Geminiani studied violin with Corelli and composing with Scarlatti – not bad credentials. His
charming music for a staged pantomime, The Enchanted Forest, was presented in Paris at the Tuileries palace in 1754.
John O’Reilly’s new composition, titled “Chautauqua West,” traces the history of the Chautauqua movement from its New York roots to Pacific Palisades. The work is scored for the winds and percussion sections of the orchestra.
Brahms’s two Serenades show the composer at his most tuneful and lyrical. The Serenade No. 1 was composed while he was working on the
St. Matthew’s Music Guild gratefully acknowledges the support of the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors through the Los Angeles County Arts Commission.
First Piano Concerto. Unlike the concerto, the Serenade is light-hearted in tone, very much cast in the mold of Mozart’s serenades for evening festivities in a Viennese garden.
Matthew Brown, one of L.A.’s most talented young composers, is composing the sixth work supported in part by the Music Guild’s grant from the Los Angeles County Arts Commission to cultivate new works by young local composers.
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June 10 at 8pmThe Chamber Orchestra at St. Matthew’s
with Violinist Yi-Huan Zhao, The Choir and Soloists of St. Matthew’s Church
n Mozart: Violin Concerto No. 4 n Mozart: Requiem in D minor
Our season finale is a celebration of Mozart featuring his final mas-terpiece, the Requiem in D minor.
Incomplete at the time of Mozart’s tragic death at the age of 35, the work is full of drama and passion.
The text of the heart-wrenching Lacrimosa, quite possibly the last music Mozart ever wrote, begins “Full of tears, that day shall be.” A lament for Mozart, it is nevertheless full of mu-sical beauty and lyricism. The Requiem is an inspired and profoundly moving work.
Mozart composed the great D major violin con-certo in 1775 at the age of 19. It is a charming and sunny work with virtuosic writing for the solo violin and charming tunefulness in the accompanying orchestra.
Christopher Tin}The Music Guild has been commissioning both younger and more established Los Angeles composers for more than thirty years. I feel proud to be among the many composers who have received commissions and whose works have been premiered by The Chamber Orchestra at St. Matthew’s.~
Christopher Tin, Grammy Award winning composer, received Music at St. Matthew’s commissions and world premieres in 2012 and 2014
Valor Academy (above), Music Director Tom Neenan (left)The Music Guild has a long-term relationship with Valor Charter Academy in Arleta. In 2015 we hosted more than 100 scholars, parents and faculty from Valor at St. Matthew’s for a performance of Prokofiev’s children’s tale Peter and the Wolf / Pedro y el Lobo, narrated by NBC4 Southern California Reporter Lolita Lopez and the world premiere of a commissioned work, Valor Academy Suite, by Marc Falcone, written to honor Valor’s amazing academic achievements.
Music at Saint Matthew’s n World Class Music Close to Home
Capital GiftsWe gratefully acknowl-edge the following per-sons who, over the years, have made major capi-tal gifts to St. Matthew’s Church and Music Guild and whose generosity has thereby significantly en-hanced the musical life of St. Matthew’s Parish and the larger community.
William & Kathy BittingPatricia OppenheimJ. Douglas & Marian Pardee
Hoyt S. Pardee (deceased) and Viorica Pardee
Martha Newman Ragland (deceased)
Peter & Susan TortoriciRalph & Mary Waycott (deceased)
Archangel ($5000+)Anonymous Corporate GiftLos Angeles County Arts
CommissionMacTon Foundation
Angel ($2500+)William & Kathy Bitting Principal Cello
Chair SponsorsLynne Brickner &
Jerry Gallard Principal Oboe
Chair SponsorsRichard Cullen & Robert
FinnertyThomas & Lynne Danco
In memory of Elaine & Peter Danco & Marjorie & Bob Larson
Assistant Concertmaster Chair Sponsors
Cindy DunnePrincipal Bassoon
Chair SponsorMike and Carol LanningRobert & Judy McInturff
In memory of Charlotte E. McInturff
Principal Flute Chair Sponsors
Geoffrey Moyer In loving memory of Mary Lynn Moyer
Principal Bass Chair Sponsor
Margaret L. Neenan Principal Clarinet Chair
SponsorPatricia OppenheimMrs. Hoyt S. Pardee Jacquie Theis Dick Van Duzer
Gold Circle ($1000+)Robert & Brenda Brown Bryan & Mary Conley Anne K. Costin Don & Tam Dickerson Fred & Sarah Doering Gorden & Karen Dressler Julian & JoAnn GanzWilliam & Nona GreeneDaryn & Bill HortonFrances KentTom & Robin NeenanCarl & June Phelps Kent & Joan Sather Sarah & Kwan SeoGeorge & Ann SmithKlaas & Dede Vlietstra John Warren
Silver Patron ($750+)Bill & Barbara BlattPeter Dubrawski Judy & Steaven JonesVance & Patricia MeyerJohn & Judy O’Reilly Frank & Kathleen
Summerland Heuser William and Sally Wallace
Sponsor ($500+)Ken & Ann Kerr AdamsKenneth & Jane AndersonJohn & Sheridan BentsonRobert & Eleanor BundyCharles & Jessie CaleAllen & Lois DunneJohn Graham & Margaret
FetterBob & Diane GuyettLyuba HarrisJohn JakleMar Jennings Chris & Mary Ellen KanoffPete Mann Wayne & Judith MarcusGeorge & Caroline MartinJohn MartineauClark & Audrey McQuay
David & Sarah MillerBill & Nancy Mortensen John & Susan NachazelFred & Alice Blair SimmonsCarl SpringSusan & Peter TortoriciCharles & Jean WarnerSam Williams
Subscriber ($375+)Tom & Sarah AdamsLiz Ames Elizabeth BrooksKaren Chormey & Tom LanePeter Crosby & Janet DavisJoyce Costello FerrisLiesel FriedrichBob & Evelyn FowlksWhitney & Sue GanzChuck & Alison GardnerWally & Maida HastingsMac & Carolyn Holmes Laurie HudsonMichael R. IrwinElizabeth and Dan KeatingeCatherine Lanter & John
CarrickSara LatzCarolyn Leacock & Ted
Mackie Mary Lou and Bill LoperIra LowryConnie Linesch & Bob LynnRobert & Louise MartinChris & Pam McGranahanHarry & Jacqueline McMahon Robert & Noel MerzJames & Eleanore MeyerCarol MoravaFrank & Sandra Morton Cynthia MothersoleDiane Piskulic & Carolyn
CohenWilliam and Dorothy Richards Guilford RobinsonKenneth Roehrs & Sara
McGahThomas SafranEllen Sangermano Linda N. SmithBernard & Reba SofferLinda SternChristine d’Arc TaylorReva & Bill TooleyJohn TormeyElizabeth TroyBruce & Yvette Van DalsemBarbara & Peter VashDavid & Nancy von OeyenMarianne Weil Merelie Whited
Jai & Becky WindingJane Wingfield & Vincent
NarcisiRob Wood & Colleen
McAndrewsDoug & Marcia YoungMichael & Phyllis Zatzick
Member ($200+)David Billeter Margaret BusheeJean CooperAnn Graham EhringerJean EnnsCynthia Marie GannonMarnie A. DamMickey Gompf Susan Grigsby Michael GyepesHeather HanunianElisabeth Luttgens Kathy MayLinda MoffitJames & Annabel
MontgomeryChris SchetterAnn Kelly & George SoneffRichard SternbergChristopher van ScoykJoyce WoodfordRoger K. Woods
Special ContributionsWe gratefully acknowl-edge the following special non-subscription gifts to the Music Guild
Mark & Gina Albert Hal & Maribeth Borthwick Bryan & Mary Conley Julian & Jo Ann GanzBob & Ann Harter Bev Lowe & John Riley
Music Guild Board of DirectorsFred Doering, PresidentAnne CostinGordon DresslerRobert FinnertyCynthia GannonJohn GrahamBill GreeneCatherine LanterJohn O’ReillyPatricia MasseyFred SimmonsCynthia Alden Smith
St. Matthew’s Music Guild Subscribers and Supporters
Subscribe or Renew by July 15 to Enjoy all Our Subscriber Benefits!I am / we are o new subscribers o renewing subscribers
2015-2016
PLEASE SELECT A SUBSCRIPTION LEVEL:
o Member ($200)n One ticket for each concert in
the series—an $80 savings*n Acknowledgment in Music
Guild programs
o Subscriber ($375)n Two tickets for each concert
in the series—a $185 savings*
n Acknowledgment in Music Guild programs
o Sponsor ($500) Above benefits plus…n Invitation to occasional
Meet the Artist Receptions
o Silver Patron ($750) Above benefits plus…n Gala Opening Night Sup-
per in a beautiful private home
n Additional complimentary tickets for select concerts (subject to availability)
o Gold Circle ($1,000) Above benefits plus…n Credited as underwriters of one major concert of the seasonn A private lunch with Tom Neenan and a principal
orchestra player
o Angel ($2,500) Above benefits plus…n Angel subscribers are acknowledged as Orchestra Chair
Underwritersn An exclusive musical soiree in a private home with Tom
Neenan, the Board, and orchestra principal players
o Archangel ($5,000+) Above benefits plus…n The satisfaction of providing world-class music and significant
musical outreach
Payment/AcknowledgementSubscribe online with your credit card at www.MusicGuildOnline.org or mail this form in with your payment. Call 310-573-7422 or e-mail [email protected] for additional information
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Contact UsMusic Director: Thomas NeenanPhone: 310-573-7422E-mail: [email protected]: www.MusicGuildOnline.org
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